Immortal Chronicals
by Zamieon-Malanchite
Summary: The time is now nearly at hand, soon the first will come down to his world, will the army that Zamieon managed to gather be enough to destroy the vampiric hoard that threatens all life on his world?
1. Prolouge Section 1

Prologue (section I)  
  
Night slowly began to fall over the countryside, the land turned a bright red in the presence of the setting sun, and already I could feel it. The power and the stench came slowly closer, the life I had lead the last few months was about to end, this would mean that I was going to need another new identity for me. I had been living in Saskatchewan since early spring, I was beginning to enjoy the longer days that summer had brought with it, the fresh Prairie air. However, they had found me once more. Their futile attempt to end my life would leave both homeless and nameless, I would be forced to start anew once more. I could hear them coming, feet pounding against the earth, like rolling thunder before the storm overwhelms the land.  
  
I could hear the dogs barking as the darkness approached, and as the coming storm approached the thunder of its feet was silenced by gun fire, bullets flew and the barking that was my early warning was over-showered, and the dogs forever silenced. There were far too many to take on physically, looks like it was definitely time for my "plan B". The thundering of their feet were very close, the dust from the rafters above me fell in what seemed to be slow motion, I remember coughing and immediately thinking of how I should have cleaned those. The pounding stopped, it was as if they had thought that I had not heard their small army charge my house and now were thinking they could catch me off guard. Then from the silence there was a loud bang, followed shortly by another, the frond door was been knocked off its hinges, it was official, the vampires had come once more. I could hear the floor boards on the main floor squeak as they slowly worked their way through my home. Doors creaked opened, shallow voices muttered nearly inaudible things to one another, and then all movement ceased. I could feel magic it seemed to arise from all around me and too late, I caught my voice escaping me. "Shit!"  
  
The loud booming of automatic weapons erupted, bullets flew through the floor beneath me, shredding the old white rug I had been stranding on, spraying blood from my legs all over it. The pain shot through me, a feeling that I had become accustomed to over the years. I fell hard to the floor, the rush of bullets stopped, and the thundering of feet began to move quickly towards the stairs leading up. The hallway seemed to grow longer as I lie in pain on the floor; I slowly dragged my body to the small coffee table only a few feet from where I had fallen. I heard the footsteps getting closer, haunting laughter of the night children filled the air, echoing throughout my home. I reached the small wooden table, a small remote lie in the center of the table the small yellow button called to me. The feet stopped and once more the bullets flew, piercing, tearing away at my flesh spilling my blood, but they were too late I had reached the remote. 


	2. Prolouge Section 2

Prologue (Section II)  
A Brief History of the Hunter's  
  
The Hunters were founded by the seven heroes of the Larodain campaign, during the later part of the second age. A war over who was to rule over Larodai, and its neighboring islands, also known as the Dark- Crest coast area. Though there were several armies involved, there were only two that would have stood a chance of taking control. The land of Caldora, ruled by Lord Arcana, and whose armies were led by the Black Dragon knighthood was one of the large armies. This army alone stood some five thousand strong, which was more than double that of the smaller armies, and far more organized. Their Trump card was a large brood of young black dragons.  
  
The other army belonged to the underground Kingdom of Kel-tholas, a hive of Drow, dark evil creatures, content only when others are suffering. Though their numbers were smaller, their warriors were far superior in all aspects of combat and sorcery. They also had a large army of Spider creatures on their side. They were feared by all the smaller armies, even the demi-gods that walked the world trembled in fear at the sight of the Drow.  
  
As with most wars, many opposed the war from every army and every lifestyle, while some held rally's or ran away there were those who would fight the armies of their own country. It was not until "Ground-Stalker" Orlaendric, king of the gods showed his presence among such people that they banded together to form more powerful rebel groups. Spread to thin the smaller armies fell quickly; their lack of experience made them easy targets for the larger armies and rebel forces. After the seventh year the rebel forces numbers swelled until they were nearly as large as the Drow, and nearly as powerful. The war lasted the better part of twenty years and in the end left most of Larodai in ash the victors not clearly known. It is known that the Drow returned to the bowls of the planet were the continued to rule the goblins, orcs and trolls. Kel-tholas was but a great ruin, a crumbling rampart was all that remained of the great kingdom. The rebels returned to what they used to call home to rebuild what they could and make a fresh start, but there were those who remained together.  
  
A total of four hundred people banded together, they chose five warriors to lead them into the future. They were Kalkordin; a human swordsman, the greatest that fought in the war was one of these hero's, his ability was so great that he was able to defeat four dragon mounted warriors single handedly. Voltaire; an Elven druid, able control weather and animals. He could call upon armies of beasts to fight alongside him making him a very dangerous foe. Gorflak; Dwarven cleric, great healer and devoutly religious follower of Orlaendric Ground-Stalker. He was also a renowned blacksmith, able to forge any item, and imbue them with incredible power. Garcarcien; a Drow assassin and sorcerer, he could control the spirits of the dead, bring them back to life and make them fight his battles. Also had created several spells that allowed him to be the greatest assassin of the war. One such ability was to make himself invisible, even when breaking his concentration to cast other spells. Finally; Flintroll, a Gnome inventor and wizard, he could cast spells more powerful than any Elf, Drow or even Draconic wizard could cast.  
  
These are the fathers of the hunters they taught the people who followed them their trades, their skills. These skills became the building blocks of the hunters abilities, we have all inherited incredible gifts from our ancestors, and these skills would prove very useful.  
  
Sometime during the third age nearly five hundred years after the war a new threat appeared, one that would make the hunters what they had become by my time. The first know report was from a small Kobold village, they went to the larger villages seeking help; something had taken their chieftain, and "changed" him. They were ignored in all the cities, not to surprising, there were few who would aid the dog-like people in any endeavor. They eventually sought help from the Blood Hawk clan, a branch of the hunter villages, and they found the help they so desperately needed.  
  
An expedition from the village had been sent to track the creature that took the chieftain, what they found was the beginning of the waking nightmare that was to become my nightmare. They returned to the Kobold village to find it destroyed, ashes were all that remained of the homes, and corpses littered the grass. The Surviving Kobold's were sent to live with the hunters in their villages. After a few days the expedition found the Chieftain, however he no longer appeared to be a Kobold, his face had began to look more elven, he was a pale white and all his fur had turned silver. It was the first of many that they would see; soon the children of the night would come out in full force, leaving only destruction and death in their path. The vampires had come and it became my people's duty to hunt them down. 


	3. Ashes Of The Past

Chapter I: Ashes of The Past  
  
I was sixteen when this whole thing began, when the world that I knew was taken and destroyed by the shadow of darkness. I was born and raised in the Stone-Hammer colony; my father was our leader, and one of the greatest hunters alive. Our village lay on the western most coast of the Dark-Crest island inlets. About 80 kilometers from our village was a small mountain range called the Bloodfists, they were said to have been created from the remnants of Yarzolv Bloodfist, the leader of demon races. We were approximately 60 Kilometers from the main land and an additional 90 Kilometers from the nearest village.  
  
The sun rose that morning like it always had, the sea air filled my lungs as I began to awaken. My mother would already have been up preparing the meal, she was a wonderful woman my mother, full of life and energy. The meal was standard egg, ham and fresh bread, milk from the goat, the smell could always over-power the salty air, and it was as welcome that day as it always had been. I pulled the hide sheet away from my bed section of the hut, and walked towards the fire where the food sat in desperate anticipation of my arrival. I ate quickly, I was nearly finished when my mother walked through the door of the hut she smiled quietly and nodded her head in my direction to acknowledge me. I bid her good morning she smiled and nodded once more, she pointed out the door to let me know that father already left and was undoubtedly preparing for the rights of passage ceremony that was to occur in about a week. The right of passage is a ceremony held when a young hunter takes a challenge to prove their worth as a warrior; they are taken on a hunt for the dark ones. I had completed my rights of passage the previous fall and would no doubt be asked to act as a guide to one of the newer hunters.  
  
I waved farewell to my mother as I left the hut she nodded as left and smiled gently. I would soon come to miss that simple smile; my mother was a gentle woman whom had an unfortunate encounter with a group of the hoard. My father had saved her but not before the bastards had cut the tong out. I left the hut and hurried to the center of our village, my father was there with the elders of the village, he caught sight of me as I approached; he motioned for me to come and speak with him. I brushed past a few of the prospect hunters I quickly noticed a young female elf, her golden hair shone brightly in the sun, had I not heard my fathers voice call for me I could have lost myself in her beauty, god I envy elves. The elders greeted me warmly praising my skills and recent victories over vampires, my father smiled and spoke only a few words to me, just enough to tell me that I would be watching the elven girl I had passed.  
  
Her name was Elrohinile, she had been preparing for the right of passage for nearly twenty years, I had trained with her the previous year it was odd that I did not recognize her on the basis that there were very few female hunters. That and her beauty was so intoxicating that I felt dizzier the closer that I came to her. She smiled and pulled her fingers through her flowing hair, this time I noticed her eyes; bluer than any body of water that I have ever seen and probably deeper. Then I realized that they were glowing, the enchantment broke immediately, and unfortunately, it did not make her any less attractive. I attempted to appear angry however, she merely laughed at the fact that I had a stupid grin on my face, it never fails the first time you become the teacher the student upstages you.  
  
We left the others that had gathered in the square to gather the supplies for the weeklong journey. We first went to the blacksmith to gather armor and weapons for the trek. She picked out a belt of silver lined throwing knives; she immediately placed the belt across her shoulder and let it fall over her opposite hip. She chose not to take armor that meant she knew protection spells, well at least I would not have to worry about her too much. Myself, I picked, chain shirt to wear underneath a light silver breastplate as well as a full helm. I grabbed a leather belt and silver falchion, which weighed heavily at my side; it had a long leather bound handle for added grip. I weighed nearly an extra sixty pounds with all the gear on, luckily, I wear more than that to train in.  
  
She smiled at me and said that she was as ready to go as she needed to be and so was I, we went back to the village elder and told him that we would be heading out soon. His old eyes shone as a smile came across his lips, it was difficult to see him smile under his long graying beard, and he leaned on his oaken staff and whispered the instructions into my ear. His voice was soft but firm, "let nothing happen to her, you will take her to the Grieving hills that outline the Bloodfist range. We suspect a small encampment of vampires to be stationed in that area, you along with three other parties are to wipe them out." He immediately walked away and gave what I assumed to be the same instructions to another "look out" hunter.  
  
Elrohinile and I left the east side of the village and began to walk, the sun reach its midday place in the sky, the temperature slowly began to rise and I began to wish I did not have all this armor weighing down on me. We walked almost two hours before Elrohinile broke the silence, her voice was flawless, every letter of every word came out smoother than ice; "so its been a year since last we met, and I've heard much about you and your fathers great deeds. Please tell me Zamieon, what is it like being in the heat of battle, outnumbered by a hoard of vampires?"  
  
I chuckled lightly, "I do not know what exactly you were told Elrohinile but I have only faced a vampiric hoard during the day. Nevertheless, the adrenaline rush is something that you will have to get used to and fast, it distorts your concentration and judgment, if your not careful that minor amount of misjudgment created by it can easily get you killed." I smiled, "not that you'll need to worry, they have me watching your back."  
  
"My back hardly needs watching," she smiled and turned her back to me and picked up her pace. I had to pick up to a near jog to keep up to her, I kept forgetting that elves are incredibly agile and fast on any type of terrene. This had quickly become a hell of a lot more difficult than I had thought. After two hours she slowed back down to allow me to catch back up, once I had caught up I decided we were going to make camp. I cast a spell to create water for the two of us.  
  
"It'll be easier to hunt them if we sleep now and hunt during the night," the words past my lips before I had a chance to think, she'd already know that, but instead of getting indignant Elrohinile just giggled, she had a wonderful smile. My word, I could not believe the feelings that I was feeling for her, I quickly looked at her eyes to see if she was casting another enchantment spell, no they were just their normal deep blue. "So when you said that your back didn't need watching, just what did you mean? You and I both know that vampires are at least fast if not faster than elves are, just what are you hiding?"  
  
"You'll have to wait till night to find," she said a playful tone overtook her voice as she lay down on the soft grass underneath us. She quickly sprang back into a sitting position with an "oh my god I forgot something minor" look on her face, she turned to me and said; "96" and lie back down.  
  
Huh? "Huh? '96,' what does that mean exactly?"  
  
I knew she was smiling even though I could not see her face, "you were eventually going to ask my age, I thought I would save us the trouble." She turned over to lie on her side; she placed her left arm under her head for support and her right over her eyes to block out the sun. True to her elven heritage, she fell asleep immediately however it was a light sleep, elves can hear a pin drop ten feet away even in the deepest sleep, and I decided it might be best if I just sleep as well.  
  
I awoke after about six hours of rest to the sound of grass moving about 100 feet away, immediately I cast a spell of night seeing and looked in the direction of the noise, (for future reference, night seeing is a spell that allows me to see as well in complete darkness as I would during the day. The main difference is that colours appear distorted slightly.) Elrohinile whispered to me, "It's a vampire."  
  
She was right, I could make it out as well, probably not as well as her, elves after all have a much greater distance to their sigh. The vampire was male, the pale skin is one of the defining attributes of the creatures, as well as the silver hair and elven features, often these creatures can pass for Drow at night, or in poorly light rooms. It appeared as though he saw us; I could see his eyes gazing deep inside mine, which is when I realized just which vampire was looking at us. The breath left my lungs, my hands began to shake slowly, for the first time in three years I was actually afraid of a vampire. His name was not known to any hunter, we simply called him and his twin the 'scared ones,' they bore nearly identical scars, this one had the scars over his left eye. They were four scars that looked as though some miserable little creature made them, whatever had done it did it well it had wrecked that eye, left it grey and undoubtedly sightless; he also had several small scars on both sides of his jaw.  
  
I took a deep breath and surveyed the rest of the land I knew that Elrohinile was not about to let the scared one out of her sight, she to knew the legend of the most deadly vampires to walk this plane. I saw no other moment, no creature stir here, the village was to far back to call for help or even escape to, a vampire like this would bear down on us in a heartbeat, which is when I realized something far worse than the prospect of fighting this vampire. Shit; "Shit," my voice quivered as I began to whisper to Elrohinile, "the others that left after us, I don't see them anywhere, no tents, no bodies, got not even any sign of struggle." The colour ran out of Elrohinile face, her eyes still fixated on the scared one; her lips trembled as she tried to speak. Ease... humming...near? No, He is coming here. The unspoken words rang louder in my head than any bell, I quickly turned my head and he was approaching us at an alarming rate, in a matter of seconds, I saw him close the gap to about twenty feet, even if she wanted to Elrohinile could not have run away. I immediately stood up and drew my falchion, but before I could move to strike I felt my body freeze in place, I couldn't move, the Scared one had placed a paralysis spell on me and I assumed that he had done the same to Elrohinile.  
  
"Relax," he said as he stopped his run almost dead and just inches from my face. "I'm not here to kill you; I am merely here to warn you." Something about his voice made me want to trust him, however I was brought up to hate these creatures, I knew than that I would not trust a word he said, unfortunately I should have. "My name is Jay, now what I am going to tell you just what is about to happen to your village within the next few days, what you choose to do with that information is up to you." His face had been near expressionless, his tone was serious, and his neck so close to me that it was infuriating not being able to attack. "My brother's and my own troops will be raiding your village two nights from tonight, my advise to you, return to the village now, warn the people within, and leave as a group. Or," I always hated that word, "or" as foreboding as it was inviting, a choice given where one should not be offered, I already knew then which choice would be the right one. "Or, you can do as the others and try to run away, I can almost guarantee that you would share their fate."  
  
I found myself able to speak as I asked a question to which I already had the answer to, "and what fate would that be." I found my voice to ring of arrogance, much more than I had intended it to, though I was proud I did not want to Provoke Jay lest he harm Elrohinile.  
  
"They are all dead, at the hands of my troops no less, a few hunters running in fear, at night, they would not stand a chance against them." He was right, even a powerful hunter would fall to a small company of vampires during the night hours; you see a vampire is farley weak during the daylight hours, however at night that is a completely different story.  
  
"W...Why..." Elrohinile's voice trailed off, she was scared, and her mind could not bring itself to ask the question that she so desperately wanted to ask. Her mouth continued to try to say the words but she seemed unable to step past the "why" of the question.  
  
"Why are you helping us?" I asked, my voice sounded as defeated as I had begun to feel. Frustration was setting in; he could be just toying with us, breaking our minds so we would make less effort when he started to steal our energy.  
  
He smiled for the first time that night; it was not a joyful smile though. It was a mournful one, like when you go to a funeral and are trying not act overly solemn. "Let me ask you something Hunter, have you ever had a dream or nightmare that when you awaken, it makes you want to change something that you have done or perhaps makes you realize something that otherwise you might not have?"  
  
Of course I had; "Of course I had, but what does that have to do with you helping us?"  
  
"Well, you see when a victim is too strong to turn, or completely unwilling to be turned, turning them becomes increasingly more difficult and dangerous. As you no doubt know, we vampires share knowledge and power at the time of turning, ones abilities become the wholes ability. Granted it takes years to hone and perfect the skills gained through it, but the knowledge becomes immediately available to the whole of the brood. Well suppose we take an unwilling person and turn them, after they are turned, they have our knowledge and more over they gain vampiric strength, they could turn on us and start killing us from the inside of a colony. To prevent this we use a type of mind control spell, very powerful, nearly impossible for any normal person or vampire to break."  
  
"So you were under that mind control?" I half asked, half announced.  
  
Jay smiled and pointed to his nose, "You see I came across someone the other week and despite my powers was unable to defeat him, me a vampire, at night, completely unable to take a single man. Instead of killing me this man walks up to my badly beaten body places his hands on my head and 'boom!' I wake up, its morning, and I have all these memories of the evil that I have committed flowing through my head like water breaking down a dam."  
  
"So now what, are you trying to win our sympathy by doing this one thing to make up for all the atrocities that you committed, I hardly see this a penance, especially if YOU, are still going to allow the attack."  
  
Jay sighed, his shacking in near disbelief, it meant that I was missing the 'big picture,' I of course had. "You see, hunter..."  
  
"My name is Zamieon Malanchite, stop calling me hunter Jay!"  
  
He raised an eyebrow in amusement at my frustration, "alright, Zamieon," his voice mocked me; it stung. "You see, I can't let the master know that I have complete control over my faculties, if they find out they will simply repeat the spell and I once again become his loyal lap dog." He walked over to where Elrohinile had been laying in silence, he helped her up, apparently, I was the only one affected by the spell, and Elrohinile was just paralyzed by fear. She shook with fear and panic but made no sound or no motion to run. Jay walked back over to where I had been frozen, "you see Zamieon, I no longer want to be part of the hoard, but at the same time I do not wish death. For what I have planned I will need allies, powerful ones, and the hunters are the only ones that even come close to the kind of fire-power I need."  
  
"W-what is it that you are planning," Elrohinile's, voice shook, and was barley audible. "Why do you want us to warn our people, how to you plan to 'use' us," she placed heavy emphasis on 'use.'  
  
Jay smiled, this time it was a true smile, "well young elf," he began, his right eye shone palely from the light of the moon, I tried a mind read spell; nothing. "I plan on using the hunters in such a way that they would enjoy. I want them to help me take down the unholy legion that the master has spawned." He actually wanted to kill the leader of the vampires, something that no hunter could do. Our battle you see was never meant to be won, we were merely meant to keep their numbers as small as low as possible so that they would not control our world. Jay quickly looked around and leaned over to my left ear, "choose what you do carefully, I hope to see you once again Malanchite, fare thee well." With that, Jay turned his back to me, then as he was walking away he transmutated into fog and completely disappeared into the night, suddenly I could move again.  
  
I turned to Elrohinile; still frozen with fear I tried to lighten the mood, "makes a hell of an exit huh?" She made no movement or noise, her face remain frozen she was in shock. I took her in my arms and doubled back to the village, I was grateful that she had not been wearing armor, I tried a few psychic spells but I could not break into her mind, there was another spell blocking it off. I was moving faster than I had ever moved in my life; we were back at the village in under an hour. The village was empty when we arrived, even the guards that normally watch the city boarders had left their posts unmanned, I called out loudly, I received no answer.  
  
I walked into my home and found my father sharpening his blade; he looked up at me with a face of dismay. "Son, put her on the bed it'll be a while before she regains consciousness, she sent word to her father and the elders, her and her father have been connected for the better part of an hour. You'd better prepare, and got some sleep as you know the hoard will be here in two days."  
  
"We should run father they are to powerful, we should fall back to either the Blood-Moon, or Griffon-Talon villages we could-"  
  
"They're dead Zamieon, almost all the hunter villages have been wiped out, the nearest is the Moon-Striker clan but we're not even sure if they are still around." My fathers was raspy, he had been giving orders to the other villagers no doubt, it was odd to see my father as he was, it was the first time I had ever seen him scared, but it was not the last.  
  
The next day past by silently, sometime during the night Elrohinile had come around, she stayed in our home till I awoke, she promised that no matter what, she and I would see it through, she was to proven right. My father took me into the town square at about midday there he and the elders discussed battle tactics. Defensive mages placed magical barriers around the entire village; Archers were station in the turrets that surrounded the inner most part of the barrier, (a draw back to the barrier is that magic can neither enter nor leave.) battle mages were sent to take cover in the fields outside of the village, to slow the invading hordes. Assassins had been spread thought the village, hiding in shadows or invisible, swordsman were waiting in full force nearer to the center of town, arms bared. After the plans were lain down, there was a feast that the workers of the village had prepared, a final feast some said others that this was merely a taste of things to come.  
  
I managed to catch a glimpse of Elrohinile standing by one of the huts, she seemed nervous, not more than most though, she talked with one of the elders, I guessed that it was her father, I was right. I walked towards her casually speaking along the way with other hunters that I knew. There were many hunters that I knew because of how close a community we were. As I got within five feet of her, a gentle hand grabbed my right shoulder, I looked at the hand lying on my shoulder, it was as black as charred wood, with slim long fingers. I smiled and did a one-eighty on my right heel to find the smiling face of Golfallow Harslem, a Half-Drow Half-Draconic assassin, and one of my best friends.  
  
"Zamieon, my old friend, how does the day find you," his voice was light and joyous, which was odd because he was a Drow; Drows you see a have an inherent cynicism within them. "I know that it finds me deeply inebriated on this fine Dwarven ale, and wonderful choke-sting weed," he burst out laughing, now his attitude made sense.  
  
"The day finds me at a very somber occasion speaking with a Drow whom is anything but somber;" once more he burst out laughing, and slapped me on the back as he walked away. I smiled and shook my head, what else could do; he was the only Drow that I had ever known to be good for a few laughs.  
  
I quickly remembered my goal and cleared my head and looked for Elrohinile, she had not moved, but was now alone, sipping from her glass, and watching a few of the hunters dance together. The mood was getting increasingly lighter as time progressed, I realized that it was a spell used to boost moral but I did not care because it gave me a feeling that I didn't even realize that I was missing; it gave me a feeling of hope. I had made my way the last few feet and was standing next to Elrohinile but she had yet to notice me. "May the night find you as healthy as the day Elrohinile."  
  
She smiled and without turning to face said; "oh it shall and so shall it find you my dear knight, for together with our brethren we shall face every hoard with honor and courage."  
  
"Not scared?"  
  
"Are you?"  
  
"Why should I? A beautiful young elf told me that I would be alright." She smiled and turned to me, she looked up into my eyes, they were full of hope and joy, and apparently I had said the right thing. "And I know that my elf will be safe for she shall have a brave knight to see her through the umm... night," dam, I really played that one wrong. She laughed at my fumble and mussed my hair a bit.  
  
She leaned towards me and placed a light kiss on my cheek. "Fare thee well my knight, I must go and make some last minuet preparations for tonight, but I swear that I will see you again." She turned and walked away from me, the best thing about elves is that they look as beautiful walking away from you as they do coming towards you.  
  
Before she had gone little more than then feet I felt a large hand slap me on the back with enough force to drop me to my knees, I heard deep laughing and immediately knew who was behind me. "Golbrac-gar-Moth, you never did know how to let me enjoy things did you?" I stood up and turned around, sure enough it was Golbrac, a massive seven-foot half-orc, his green furry face bore the most ridiculous smile imaginable, two large tusk-like teeth protruded from the sides.  
  
A deeper gruff voice came from just outside of my line of vision, "aye, look at 'im, seems our frien' Malanchite goes after even elves, 'tis a sad state of affairs when ye think ye' ken a man then he turns on ye and falls fer an elf." I turned to see a red bearded dwarf sitting atop a tree stump, he to bore a grin of jest; these two always did enjoy poking fun at me.  
  
"Well look at this its not often I get to see a stump sitting on a stump." (For those not already aware a stump is a derogatory name for a dwarf) I smiled and extended my had which was readily accepted by both in turn, "So Gorvin Dewhammer, just what do you have against elven women?"  
  
"Same one I 'ave with their men they're a bunch o' fairy-dust-fartin' tree 'uggers," his reply came out jokingly.  
  
"But they smell Pretty," piped in Golbrac, he was a nice person just not to bright.  
  
"Better than Dwarven women," I retorted.  
  
"Aye? What problem 'ave ya with my women?"  
  
"I need not a woman who has more hair than me."  
  
"They smell like goblin and orc woman."  
  
"Aye, but 'ow 'bout those drow women?"  
  
"All women are putty before a Malanchite," there was a long pause after I said this, followed immediately by long, deep and all around healthy laughter. We continued to talk about women and life until the time came.  
  
We heard the sound of a great horn being blown, a horn that had never had need to be blown before, night was only an hour away, the party broke immediately, men and women scattered to their positions, and we were battle ready in less than twenty minutes. A gentle hand touched my shoulder with grace, I was getting tired of everyone sneaking up on me, I had my guard down all day, and now I needed to be alert of everything around me. I turned to see Elrohinile standing behind me, I saw what she had been hiding the day before. Her skin was completely metal, and it shone and glistened underneath the light green tunic and pants that she was wearing. An incredibly difficult spell to use, it made the caster nearly impervious to physical attack, interestingly enough the metal skin did not weigh down a caster.  
  
She smiled and leaned in towards me, she whispered in my ear, "See you need not worry, and now neither do I." I felt her arms rise above my head and slowly lower something around my neck. She stepped back as I looked down at the necklace that she placed around my neck, it was a simple silver linked band with a rune unfamiliar to me dangling at its end. "It protects the wearer form the elements, now no element shall cause you pain or harm," she came back towards me and put her arms around me, "see you make it through this battle." I would see to it.  
  
Before I could speak, I heard it, the battle cry of the hoard, an unearthly high-pitched whale broke through the fading light, and night was now upon us. The earth shook with furry, as dust rose high into the sky, suddenly they came into view, a few hundred vampires in lycan form (picture a man with arms that reach near his knees, and a long wolf like face with razor sharp teeth and claws as weapons). This was the fastest form that all vampires can use, also incredibly strong, the bore-down on the village drawing dangerously close. Our battlemages attacked first, large explosions of fire, ice, wind, and lightning ignited the fields, screams of pain and anguish came out of the fray, the smell of burning fur and flesh was blown towards the village. Suddenly the sky glowed red as large pillars of flame came down, crashing on the magic barrier shaking the very ground that I stood on, my adrenalin started to pump and I became aware of everything around me. Outside the barrier the mist and fog rolled towards our battle mages, it was too late for them, the fog and mist transformed into vampires more than three hundred strong materialized from the fog and effortlessly slaughter the mages, their blood soaked the ground their screams came and went within seconds. The smoke settled from where the mages laid waste to the earth and vampires, bodies twitched, and sickly groans of pain could be heard. Slowly about sixty percent of the lycans stood up, their wounds healing so quickly that it could make a troll jealous.  
  
Now they walked confidently towards our village, gracefully, in silence, they began to draw weapons and shields, I followed suite. I unsheathed my falchion and gripped my round shield tightly, my heart began to increase its beats, my awareness grew, I became aware of the presence of Jay and his brother within the vast vampiric army, I could not locate them but I could feel them. I became aware of the descending hoard, the flame pillars stopped but were immediately followed by swarms of bats, they flew throughout our village and began to take their true form, vampires began to attack us from the center of town first. Assassins phased in and of visibility, slicing and hacking at the vampires, cries of pain erupted as blood began to spray, limbs begat to fall, as well as bodies, blood pored over the cobble stone streets. Vampires began to swing wildly cutting down our assassins, more screams and more death sounded, the vampires began to cast spells of magical displacement to stop the assassins fro phasing.  
  
The First front began its attack on the village crossing over the magic barrier, immediately flame and lightning ripped through the village, bodies ignited; horrified screams of pain and anger filled the air. Vampires surrounded us we were being attacked form all sides, fires lit the huts ablaze, shinning crimson light over the battlefield, I was aware that Elrohinile was behind, she had her back to mine, nothing was going to happen to her I would see to that. Then they were in front of me and beside me, attacking my friends and family. I sliced at a nearby vampire, my sword cleave through his arm, bone and all, the limb fell uselessly to the ground, I took a second swing and his screaming head and it joined the arm. A lycanthropic arm grazed my face from the side, cutting me along my right cheek, I knew it was there but did not have the time to move. My skin split open blood ran slowly down my face, that cut would leave a scar, a constant reminder of this day. I cleaved at the vampire in wolves clothes, striking clean through its abdominal area, starting at its left should and ending with its right rib area, it howled in pain and disgust its organs spilled to the ground, blood splattered over me, my sword dripped heavily with its blood. The body twitched on the ground for a few moments then it was dead, the battle was intense, fur and flesh were cleaved from all around, and the ground became sticky with blood and the air thick with the stench of death.  
  
We were fight a losing battle, for every one that we struck down five of our warriors fell, that's when I became aware of Jay, he approached Elrohinile and myself, I paid no heed, I knew that I would not be able to defeat him should he attack. I became aware that he placed his hands on both of us, I became aware of a vampire preparing to strike at me, I was aware of my sword adding a an air vent to his brain, I was aware that he fell with a lifeless thud, then I stopped being aware. When I awoke it was morning and I was alive, I sat up quickly, well I tried to my head had still been spinning, I got halfway and then my head hit the ground hard, with a thud. I sighed and breathed deeply, I could smell smoke in the air, thick heavy smoke lined with death. I focused all the energy that my body could muster and forced myself into a sitting position, I surveyed the area, Elrohinile was unconscious next to me, I watched her chest slowly rise and fall a few times to reassure myself that she was alive. To the west I could see the remnants of my village, charred homes and piles of burning bodies were all that remained of my home, of our home, tears of sorrow and anger filled my eyes I tried to fight them back but was once again fighting a losing battle. My family, my friends all dead, why was I saved, a voice answered my question.  
  
"Because your father asked me to spare you and the elf; as well as the one who freed me." Jay stood up from his hiding place in the tall grass; his clothes were elegant, made of fine silks, a clothing design seen mostly in the far west. He walked towards me while digging in a cloth sack, he sat next to me and pulled out a loaf of bread and offered it to me, ate took it and tried to be as grateful as I could.  
  
"You, know" I began between chews, "I could easily kill you right now, and I have every right to do so."  
  
"The thought had crossed my mind."  
  
"So why did you stay here knowing that, I mean you aren't very strong right now I could kill you with almost no effort."  
  
"True but the one who turned me said that you would not kill me, I trust his decisions, and take his advise and orders very seriously. He wants me to take you to him once your ready."  
  
"Who is he?"  
  
"Someone very wise and strong, now eat we will start walking as soon as the elf wakes up."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Back there?" Jay motioned towards the village, "well the children of that sick bastard attacked and slaughtered your people, I tried to convince your father to get as many people out as possible but he refused and told me to get you and the girl out of there. You see you have always been the primary objective of my mission. So I found you and the girl, and used both of your energy to transport us out of there."  
  
"That's why I feel so weak?"  
  
"Correct, sorry but I haven't quite learned how to do it right so I need help with the energy needed in the spell."  
  
"So where is he?" I know I should have been angry, but I had been taught never to hold anger for one who does not deserve it, I would save it for the man who sent Jay. 


	4. Settling Smoke

Chapter II: Settling Smoke  
  
Elrohinile stirred next to me, her breathing quickened as she realized that she was alive, her eyes slowly opened fluttering from the bright light of day. She lay motionless in silence; her blue eyes began to drown in tears, a hushed whimper came from her closed mouth. Jay noticed her awaken; he motioned for me to come over to speak with him.  
  
"Listen Zamieon," he whispered, his voice was sick with sympathy and pity; "the elf will take some time to deal with the situation, more than you will, and I wish I could give her that time, but we will need to leave soon." His hands moved to the right side of his waist, he pulled a large empty sack from his side; it was about ten inches in width and four deep, it seemed like a simple burlap pouch. "Take this, it's a void sack, you can carry approximately twenty squared feet of gear in here, but it's a little difficult to pull it out, go back to your village and stock up on weapons, armor, food, clothing and anything else that may be useful to the two of you. You have until two hours before the sun sets, I will meet you on the eastern shore by the large rocks; do you know the ones I mean?"  
  
I nodded, "the ones were the boats are tied up near."  
  
"That's them, listen I realize that you owe me nothing, but I would like to offer my apologies, there was nothing more I could have done. Please understand that I wanted your village to escape together when I warned you of the attack and-" his voice trailed off and his eyes faced the ground I could see tears falling on the dry ground leaving their wet marks upon it.  
  
"Jay, know that though I am thankful for what you did for me and Elrohinile but," sigh, "I cannot offer you forgiveness, it is our way that you must first forgive yourself, and then take actions to prove your sincerity." I do not know why I was so calm, I guess that it had to do with the fact that it was always there, the fact that vampires hated and killed hunters just as we did to them. It was foolish to blame this on Jay. "Jay, may I ask you something?"  
  
Jay's head jerked up and met my eyes, his blink eye was a smoky grey colour, and in fact, it appeared as a hazy smoke almost moving, like smoke blowing in a light breeze. His good eye was a deep emerald green colour; tears still filling it. "You may if you like, but I may not answer."  
  
"Fare enough, did you choose to be changed?"  
  
Jay smiled grimly, "do you think they would have placed that mind controlling spell on me if I had?" His voice shook and I decided not to continue asking him about it for now, and I had the feeling that I would be seeing a lot of him. Jay cleared his throat and stood up, "I have to go now, there are a few things that I must attend to, there is another loaf of bread in the bag; you should give it to her." Jay turned away, cast a flying spell upon himself, and flew off into the distance.  
  
I watched him fly off into the distance for a short while; he had flown almost completely out of vision as I turned to face Elrohinile who still lay motionless on the ground crying in silence. I slowly walked back towards her and tried to talk to her but I did not think she heard me. I met her eyes with my own but there was no sign of recognition, her mind seemed to be in complete shock, there was no way to tell how long she would be gone and there was no time to wait. I picked her up in my arms and carried her over to the village, it was about a one-hour walk, and thankfully, she was light.  
  
I walked through the charred skeletal frame of the gates, embers still glowed a bright red, smoke still rose from the ashes of the buildings, the smell of burning flesh was overwhelming, and it quickly began to make me nauseous. I lay Elrohinile down on a semi-clean potion of the ground; tears rolled down her elegant face clearing a path through the layer of dust that covered it. I leaned over her and whispered to her letting her know that I would not be gone for long and for her to remain there.  
  
I stood up and began to make my way through the blood soaked cobble stone streets of the village. The bottom of my boots were sticking to the streets, the squishing sound beneath me was nearly too much. Bodies lay scorched; some still burning in piles that littered the streets at every side, disgusted I began to rummage through them. It seemed that the bodies were from both sides, all stripped of weapon, armor and even clothes. I gave up trying to find anything useful in the heaps of bodies. I turned my attention to what remained of the buildings, I found no more than rubble within the first few homes, which is when I remembered the weaponry. I walked over to the training barracks on the western most edge of the village, I walked past the stone and wood beams that were scattered upon the ground, and I came to what used to be the courtyard of the complex. All that remained of the garden was black soot covered and utterly dead earth, I got down on my hands and knees and began to feel for the entrance to the armory.  
  
I took me nearly half an hour to find the heavy chain that attached to the large metal cover that hid the armory; I grabbed hold and pulled. I strained and heaved with all my might but the door moved little moor than half and inch. I stopped my effort and focused my energy and cast a spell of godly strength, I began to feel the strength course through me almost immediately. I grabbed hold of the chain once more and pulled the door away from the passage to the armory; it was still incredibly difficult and took me just inside of ten minutes. As I walked around to the stairs that led downward, I realized for the first time the magnitude of the door. It had been nearly seven feet in width, nearly ten in length, and about two inches in thickness; I nearly put my back out just looking at it. It was no wonder I could not move it before I cast the spell.  
  
I walked around the metal door, there were large stone steps that led down into the bowls of the armories, it had a musky stench to it, and yet it seemed amazingly dry. Darkness stretched out all around me, it seemed like the outside light did not enter the inside of the crypt like area that was the armory. I cast a lighting spell to see what was going on, a bright ball of light began to emanate from my outstretched hand, the light rose higher until it was almost a foot over my head, then the light exploded, and stretched thought the room. I examined the room trying to find things of use; in the far right corner there was a large weapons rack, I grabbed form it a pair of falchions, five daggers, two weapons belts, and an axe. Two feet to the right side of the rack was a weapon chest, it was a nearly two feet in height and nearly six feet long, I opened it and began to rummage through it, I found about six belts of throwing knives which I decided to take, as well as five silver daggers.  
  
I looked around the room some more, and it was little more than just a single, room, but I was sure there was more to the armory than this. I had only been here once before, back when I was training in the barracks. I knew that the next spell that I cast was nearly going to deplete my energy, but I needed to find the rest of the gear. I closed my, took a deep breath and concentrated all the magic power that my body could muster, the words spilled slowly through my mouth; "magics of the forgotten plain, cast off you bindings, free thy-self from that which keeps you, Dispel!" It worked as I opened my eyes, the spell that had been cast to conceal the door on the east wall began to fade, the wall appeared to sway the way the ground does on hot summer days, they red oaken door phased into sight. Sadly, I was right of being completely depleted, my body became heavy, as I fell to knees, my arms were to heavy to lift, as a result I let the side of my face take the blunt of the remainder of my fall. My head throbbed with pain as it nearly bounced off the heard stone floor; "oof!" The air escaped my lungs, it became hard to breath, my vision began to blacken, and I struggled to keep consciousness, dots danced throughout my line of sight.  
  
That is when I heard it, footsteps, soft upon the ground moving very slowly. I heard the gentle footsteps coming down the stairs, I tried to pick myself up and look at who was coming, though I already knew who it was going to be. The feet stopped as they reached my body, my face still lying on the floor, a soft hand placed itself on my back; I half smiled. "I thought... I ... tol-"  
  
"Shhh, now is not the time to talk of such things," Elrohinile's voice trembled lightly, she was still crying, I was shocked by how well she was recovering. "Relax now," she said; her voice that of compassion, like a mother to her child after they hurt themselves, "I'm going to cast a rejuvenate spell, you should be alright." From the corners of my eyes, I could see a greenish hue in the lighting, it seemed to gather above and slowly fall on me, like a gentle rainfall, as the droplets began to touch me I could feel my energy slowly return. The rain stopped and the gentle hand lifted from my back, I slowly moved my arms to a push-up position and lifted myself back onto my knees, before I could turn to her Elrohinile thrust her arms around me and began to weep, I pivoted my torso and wrapped my arms around her.  
  
"Elrohinile, I'm sorry that-"  
  
"Don't be sorry, this is not you fault this is something that was inevitable, no one not you nor the other hunters could have changed it," her voice shook and trembled, her face buried in my left shoulder. "This isn't the first time this has happened you know, my father and I came here thirty years ago from the golden-chimera village in the far west. It was the first village destroyed by these raids, but because of the guild set up we were not able to ally all the hunter guilds." Her voice trailed, I knew what she wanted to say.  
  
"They're all dead aren't they, all the hunters we were the last, and now we've failed." My voice echoed with anger, I tried to cover it with sadness but failed miserably.  
  
"No, there may still be others further east, the attacks have been progressing east, but no matter where we go the same thing will happen, and once all the hunters are gone the vampires will have run of the world."  
  
"How do you know all this, how do you know that they are systematically destroying villages, and how do you know that, that is their ultimate goal? What did you and your father know that the rest of us didn't?" I was frustrated it seems like she was hinting at something more than what was there.  
  
She sighed and pushed away from me softly; she stood up and looked down upon me, which was the first time I think she saw the scratch on my face. She gave me a half smile, her sad eyes looking deeply into my own which were undoubtedly filled with confusion and anger. "You have it wrong Zamieon," she started her tone changed she became serious, "what we knew every hunter chieftain or councilor knew, it was a prophecy, one that has been handed down since the Larodain campaign, one that foretells the coming of the 'chosen one.' However, I am not the one who will tell you of the prophecy, the man that Jay wants you to meet is the one who will tell you. I did not realize it then but I feel that the man who freed Jay is the one that will guide you."  
  
"What is with this cryptic bullshit? My father and my mother are dead, as is your father and all you are going to tell me is there is some prophecy that somebody I have never met is going to tell me?" Elrohinile's body tensed, her eyes winced as though I had plunged one of the daggers into her, those deep blue filled with water. My hands fell uselessly to my side, I took a deep breath and began to swallow pride, "I- I am sorry I did not mean to become so angry. It is not your fault that this happened, I have no right to be angry with you; but I do have a right to know the truth."  
  
Her eyes softened, and she nodded in agreement with me, "you do deserve to the truth, and you will learn it but as I said I am not the one who should tell you. Believe me, trust me the one who you will speak to will tell you more than I can."  
  
"Who is he? I mean how does he know so much?"  
  
"All will be revealed in time." She turned gracefully as she walked to the door, she grabbed the handle and the hinges creaked as it she opened it. The door opened to a large room that was light by torches that never died out, never actually burned, just fancy lighting enchanted torches. I followed closely behind her, it appeared as though Elrohinile knew her way around the armory as she quickly moved to a large dresser like cabinet that stood against the northern wall, and she opened the oaken doors silently. She rummaged around the cloaks and other garments within the cabinet until she found what she was looking for, it was a long leather coat, or at least that was what I thought before she pulled it all the way out.  
  
Her hands slipped and the coat fell with a thud to the ground near her feat, I reached it before she did, my hand grabbed at the fabric, which I realized was not leather, its color began to change to blend in with the floor, I smiled. "A chameleon spell, on a coat? What kind of fabric is this?" I asked completely amazed by this coat, I had briefly forgotten about the prophecy. I realize that most people think me insensitive, but hunters learn to control their emotions at a very young age, death is always around it, you learn to move on or face death yourself.  
  
"Its made from Berowel hide, nearly as hard as adamantine but much lighter." Elrohinile seemed amused by my child like behavior, "children" she said jokingly.  
  
"You are not older than me," I replied in an equally jokingly tone.  
  
"I happen to be eighty years your senior, or did you forget that I was ninety-six years old?"  
  
"Yeah in Elven years, that's the equivalent to what a fifteen, sixteen year old human?"  
  
"Sixteen, but we follow the same calendar as you; it's not our fault you humans age so quickly." She smiled that little smile she had, always a sucker for a beautiful smile. She helped me put it on; I could feel the coat shrink slightly as it went on, as it did this it went from being a size to big to a perfect fit. It was weighed about twenty pounds, mainly due to the fact that it had to scimitars in it; their sheaths seemed to disappear into two of the pockets, I assumed the pockets worked similar to the sack Jay had given me except these did not have the same weight reduction. Elrohinile pulled a second one out of the cabinet, this time I was able to see it do the form fitting it had done to me, the entire coat shrinks so that it is the perfect length on anybody.  
  
A shimmering group of chests lined the eastern wall; they were metal and polished to near perfection, the light they reflected back was nearly blinding. I moved silently towards them, Elrohinile's eyes followed me, I could feel them watching my every move. I opened the first chest, it seemed to contain ancient manuscripts, nothing of great importance, as I flipped through them it seemed the mostly told of the great war between the gods and demons, or the history and evolution of hunters. The second chest contained a large number of spell books, there were about five in total, all bound in leather cases, each with its own symbol to represent which types of spell were contained within each.  
  
There was Destruction spells; which is the class that contains the manipulation of the elements to cause physical harm, as well as hexes, curses and poisonous spells. These spells were mainly for combat, it was pocketed. The next book was for illusions, manipulating time and space, as well as the creation of pocket dimensions. The highlight was the final section that discussed the art of plains walking; another book was added to the bag. Holy magic filled the third book, everything from healing and divination spells, to spirit banishing and spells that affect the undead, yoink. The final book contained demonic spells, like necromancy and spirit summoning, though I disliked the idea of such spells, it to was added to the collection.  
  
While I busied myself with the books Elrohinile had found a void bag, but this one had been previously used as a traveling sack so it had shoulder straps and hung loosely on he back, she gathered a smith's anvil, hammer, prongs, scrap metal, and a large amount of tinderboxes. I opened the third box, It contained rations, dried meats, elven breads as well as a few empty water skins, I took a little of each, which is when I remembered the loaf of bread Jay told me about. I stuck my hand into the bag and began to rummage through it, I could feel all sorts of things; metal, something sharp, leather, got it.  
  
I walked over to Elrohinile and held the loaf out to her, she looked at the bread, then back at me, took it from my hands and said thank you in the elven tongue. She went back to looking so did I. The final chest that lay near the corner of eastern corner of the room, I opened it, it contained clothes, shirt, pants, shoes, boots, a few winter hooded clothes and even some jewelry, this chest was the only on that struck me as being odd, there was little use for most of this stuff in combat. I stopped looking so deep into it and decided to take some extra clothes as well as two of the winter garments, never know when that may come in handy.  
  
I turned to where the door was and noticed about twelve armor racks, and three shelves, all packed with armor from simple breastplates to full plate- mail suits. I removed the coat that I had been wearing and draped it over one of the racks; I began to look for a decent breastplate to replace the cheaper one that I was wearing. I found one, made from mythril silver, light, thin, and incredibly durable. I removed the one that I had been wearing; it made a loud clanking noise as it hit the floor. I pulled the mythril armor from off its stand, and put it on, it was half the weight of the old one, and fit much more comfortably. The chain shirt that I had was still in perfect condition so I decided not to exchange it, I picked the coat off the rack and dawned it once more, it made the necessary compensations to my dimensions and it fit perfectly again.  
  
Elrohinile came and stood next to me, her hand gently touched my shoulder, and I turned my head as far around as it would go. "Are you about done?" she asked quietly.  
  
"As done as I need to be, I guess we should get back the surface, maybe go and wait by the rocks."  
  
She pulled the pack that she had been filling tight to her back; I tied the sack to my belt and made my way to the door. On my way out I noticed a small trap door at my feet, it was a little wider than I was, I bend down and grasped the large metal handle and pulled hard, it creaked as it was opened. The wooden door echoed through the room as it connected with the floor, my ears rang for a few seconds. I peered through the hole and saw blackness; I had Elrohinile pass me a torch and I tossed it into the hole. The torch hit another stone floor no more than three feet down, it seemed to be a crawlspace. I jumped down into the cramped space, I looked to both sides and found that the room was not a crawlspace at all but a vault filled with gold, platinum and even taritium pieces. I could feel my eyes widen, I had never known the wealth of our clan before. I untied the sack from my belt and began to fill it with coins.  
  
Elrohinile's voice made me stop hoarding the coins, "I think that you may have more than enough there Zamieon." I looked up to see her giving me an impatient look, "now come on, we have till nightfall and the rocks are a three hour trek, we don't want to be late." She reached her hand down into the hole; I clasped it firmly and used it to help me pull myself out. Surprisingly she did not budge; she was amazingly strong for an elf. She helped dust me off laughing at my apparent greed, then she laid me flat (figure of speech although I almost did fall over) her lips pressed against mine, briefly but let it be known that even a short kiss from an elf is enough to literally take you breath away.  
  
"Wha-what was that for?" I said as I could feel the blood rush to my face and ears.  
  
"Taking care of me twice in such a short time, you are incredibly considerate for a human, even more so than your father. I should know he took care of me when I first came here." She turned form me and began to lead the way out, I followed closely. We reached the surface, the sun had already passed it midday position, I estimated that we had between four to five hours of sun light left; Elrohinile corrected me before I had a chance to say anything. "We'd better hurry, we only have three hours of light left, and we might just have to run part of the way if we want to make it before the sun sets." She led the way at a quick pace that was like jogging to me.  
  
"So you knew my father well?" I asked Elrohinile, the bag on her back bobbed with every graceful elven step she took.  
  
"Yes, very well in fact, he was like an older brother to me, I was only sixty-six when we came here, and your father was closer to your age, maybe a little older. I'd guess he was seventeen or eighteen, and luckily you inherited his good looks." She turned to me and realized just how much faster she was moving compared to me and stopped, she was almost laughing at the fact that she was so mush faster. "Sorry I keep forgetting that we elves move faster."  
  
"Don't worry about it, sometimes I forget how slow we are compared to you, it's a good lesson in humility." I cast a smile in her direction and it was returned ten fold, she was laughing, it was a beautiful sound, an elven laugh is the second most beautiful laugh around, second only to a dragons.  
  
When I caught up Elrohinile began to move but much slower this time, we continued to jog, and run towards the rocks that Jay was to meet us. The journey was nearly silent except for Elrohinile pointing to the local flora and telling me about each, I do not really recall much of what she had said, I was listening more to her voice than to the words that she spoke.  
  
We arrived by the rocks about a half hour before the sun was to set, Elrohinile had me help her up onto one of the rocks, the sea air blew through her hair. The crimson sky seemed to turn her long golden hair a strawberry red colour. "You know Zamieon, it's been almost fifteen years since I was last here," she breathed deeply; "I had forgotten how wonderful the air here smelt."  
  
She was right, there was something about how the air smelt here that could not be reproduced or even described. The water broke upon the rocks, creating a mist that dampened the sand and left the rocks glistening. Elrohinile glistened from the mist as well, despite my training I am still only male. "You look amazing." I completely meant to think and not say that. Elrohinile broke out laughing, but made no comment.  
  
Fog began to roll in off the water as the sun continued to set, the fog quickly settled over the rocks, as the fog thickened I began to feel a cold shiver move through my body. I felt two immense powers coming towards us, Jay silently materialized before us. The second power came closer, I could feel it coming from the water, I quickly climbed the rock that Elrohinile was sitting on, and she had apparently not felt the power; her eyes were fixated on Jay. I looked out trying to see through the fog, then it came into view, a large fishing boat came into view, a single occupant was standing at the rear of the wooden boat. The boat came to a halt along the rocks, as it did the figure waved out its arm and the rocks formed stairs leading up to where we were standing.  
  
As the figure did his amazing entrance Jay crossed his arms and spoke in an insulted tone; "what no hey Jay, how are you? Just focus on the new guy." I turned my head and he was looking directly at me, smiling. "Sorry to keep you waiting hunter, but the man is hard to find."  
  
The figure came closer; he was hooded, in a black robe using a walking stick. He spoke in a booming voice; but it was not as though he was trying to speak like that it seemed as though it was his normal voice. "Zamieon Malanchite, I have been waiting a long time to meet you." He pulled the hood off his head as he did his long brown hair fell in front of his face and then he pulled it back. He looked about thirty, very handsome or at least I think he was, but what do I know; he had a half-beard growing. "I guess that this would be as good a time as any to tell just what this prophecy your young elven friend was telling you about."  
  
I will admit he caught me off guard, I spoke before I took everything in; "how did you know about that? Who are you?"  
  
He smiled almost as though he knew I was going to ask it, he did. "Knew you'd ask that. I can answer those questions quite easily, one; I know everything, well more or less, I know everything that was, and what must happen for things to go as they are supposed to go. As for the second question I have many names, but I believe here they call me Orlaendric, but you may call me Odin."  
  
I felt my jaw gape opened unsure if I should believe him, I mean some person claming to be the king of the gods, come here to speak to me. "What proof do you have that you are who you say you are?"  
  
"I believe that I will leave that up to Jay to explain at a later time for now just listen, I will explain the prophecy as best I can. It is said that one would come, barring the scar of vengeance, and he alone will gain the power to part the seas of darkness. One person who will exist outside of time, forever in the hunt, until only he is left victorious over the evil, and able to take his place in the forever. Zamieon, you are the one the prophecy speaks of, you bare the mark and you are the only one left with your people's gifts." He left it at that and gave me a chance to let it all sink in, it was hard to understand what he meant by all of it. Then he continued, "I realize that I have no right to tell you what to do, there is still a choice you can make. You must choose whether or not to become one who exists outside of time."  
  
I felt all eyes on me, Elrohinile slid slowly from her rock and walk towards me her hand squeezed mine. I was unsure of what to answer however; I did not really understand the question. "What do you mean, 'exist outside of time?' I do not think that I quite understand what you mean by that." I felt a little embarrassed asking any question to the king of the gods. I stared at Orlaendric, looking over his face, and made the realization that he was missing his right eye, though it may not be to surprising to find someone with an eye missing, but it is said the Orlaendric trade his eye for knowledge.  
  
Odin stared at me, looking me over as though he were making calculations in his head, "I apologize, I thought you older. I may have access to all the knowledge of the universe but I am a tad on the absent-minded side. I will allow you to ponder the prophecy and the meaning of my words for a few years, I will return on your twenty-first birthday to see what you have chosen." Then he raised his right hand, from the distance, I could hear the whaling of a crow, I could hear it getting close very quickly, but because of the dark, I could not see it. Then it appeared on the top of Odin's staff, "This is Munin, one of my scouts, he always knows where to find me, I give him to you, should you need me send Munin to me." The raven flew towards me and landed upon my shoulder, as it did this Odin turned his back to me and began to walk away.  
  
"Where do I go from here?" I called out to Odin my voice echoed through the rocks.  
  
Odin continued to walk away as he spoke, "Jay will take care of that, now I must be off. I will see you in less than five years." He floated over the rocks and landed back in his boat, then he turned to us and wave to Elrohinile to join him. Her hand released mine as she turned to face me; her arms embraced me tightly and kissed my cheek. A tear rolled down her face, she was oddly emotional for an elf. She released me she removed the sack she had been carrying and let it softly fall at my feet. She then moved quickly to the boat, she gracefully climbed over the rocks and joined Odin in the boat. Odin snapped his fingers and the boat was gone, this was happening to fast.  
  
"He's taking her somewhere safe," Jay's voice was soft, he walked over and stood next to me, the night air was turning cold, I was beginning to see my breath hanging in the air. "As for you my little hunter friend, the great Odin has left you in my care. I am to train you as best I can, I will teach you everything I know, everything that we vampires know." I looked at Jay he was staring at me, a devilish smile swept across his face, I could tell that this was going to be a long four and a half years.  
  
"I thought you said that she and I would be staying together, not me and you." My voice laced with sarcasm nearly as much as my face.  
  
"Sorry lad change of plans, besides, you really don't want to be stuck for the better part of four years with a stuck up elven girl do you?" Jay laughed and slapped my back hard; I guess I was wrong this might be an enjoyable change for me. 


	5. Mental Anguish

Chapter III: Mental Anguish  
  
Jay picked up the sack that Elrohinile had left behind and slung it over his shoulder, he turned to me and said, "all right from here we cross to the mainland, I trust you know at the very least a levitation spell." He cast a winged-flight spell on himself, I followed suit, though trained as a fighter, I learned a number of spells to aid me. "Well now, I had expected you to know far less about magic than this, you may yet make a fine student." He flew off at speed that was difficult to keep up with; it would only take about an hour to make the Larodai coast at this speed. I was unable to speak for the duration of the flight due to the extreme focused required to hold the spell at this speed, it was painful and I had gained a headache by the time we landed.  
  
We landed in front of a large hut in the middle of a large grassland field; the field had little in the way of vegetation, although the hut had a small garden growing near its rear. There were a large number of high hills creating a crescent-like shape around the field. The hills seemed to be home to a small group of eleven rangers or druids; they were well taken care of and seemed to have many moonblossom plants. Jay directed me in the direction of the hut, I walked hesitantly towards the hut, it seemed to sturdy in design, a roof of clay tiles, walls of stone, it had one large rounded door, and several circular windows. I pushed the wooden door open with some effort and found that it was extremely heavy. It opened to show three large rooms, the one on the right seemed to be where meals would be both eaten and prepared. The room to my left was a sleeping area, it had three large beds of straw and feather, and covered with various furs, there were to large dressers one on each side of the room. The center room was the largest, it was a wide and long room that contained a single alter at the front, the floor was padded halfway into the room, and the rest seemed to be a polished wooden surface.  
  
"Zamieon this will be your new home, pick a dresser and bed, get settled as quickly as possible, I want to start your practice as soon as possible. When you finish I will be waiting for you in the center room, and please take your boots off before you enter it." Jay removed his footwear and entered the center room, he let the sack he had been carrying hit the padded floor with a satisfying thud, he made his way to the alter.  
  
I removed my boots and left them to the side of the door, I walked into the sleeping chamber and walked to the dresser on the right side of the room, I opened its large doors, inside there was five shelves large enough to place full suits of armor in. I removed the sack attached to my belt and began rummaging through it for the clothes that I had taken with me, it took a few minutes but I had manage to find most of it and loaded all the clothes minus one pant and shirt, I decided that I wanted to change before I went into the center room. As I removed my shirt, the fabric dragged against my face but I did not feel the wound, I assumed that Elrohinile's recovery spell had fully healed it. Once I had my clothes off I cast a cleansing spell upon myself, a simple spell that cleaned my body as a good soak in a river or bathhouse would. I put the clean clothes on and then put my armor back on as well as the long coat.  
  
I entered the center room silently and caught sight of Jay kneeled before it almost as though he were praying to it, I slowly approached him, which is when I heard him, he did not speak but I heard his voice echoing in my mind. "Let me make something very clear Zamieon, for the rest of your time here we shall not speak, I will expect you to learn telepathy. Now I do not want you reading or wandering in others minds, I just need you learn to speak to others in their minds; now come up here." As he finished his sentence he waved his right hand for me to join him, my headache was bad enough without having him speaking directly into my mind.  
  
I approached the alter my feet sank lightly into the padding of the floor; the polished floor was slippery and cold beneath my feet. I kneeled beside Jay and began to examine the alter; it was a heavy metal worked alter with a fine marble top, I guessed that the piece was mad by Dwarven craftsmen, there were carvings of battle scenes on the metal and marble. Jay's voice echoed once more within my head, "Now the trick is to become intoned with you surroundings, feel the spirits that are all around us. The spirits of the air, of the wood, of the fire, of the water, these spirits are ever constant, brining with them life and death, one always trading for the other." He turned his head to face me, "have you ever meditated before young Malanchite?" I shook my head by made no sound this seemed to please Jay. "Good, you remembered that you are also not aloud to speak, being able to communicate feelings and ideas without words it the first steps to being able to mind speak. We do it every day with gestures, or facial expressions, the way we present ourselves with our postures and the way we walk. It is being able to both send and receive these clearly that one must first conquer. I've seen you be able to read people's body language as well as their faces, this is not much harder."  
  
I was becoming dizzy, nausea began to pass over me, my mind was being over exerted, I fought back the feelings and held my composure as best I could, I felt confident enough in my abilities to continue. Jay turned his eye from mine and stared in front of him, "Now clear your mind, thoughts are impure, impurity must be cleansed. Breath deeply but slowly your mind must be focused on itself, ignore your body, allow your mind to find itself. Your mind sees your body at all times, hears every sound it makes, feels all that it feels, it ignores itself until it has drained itself and leaves you mentally exhausted. Your mind must find itself to find another's mind, now try letting yourself fade, you shall hear my voice but not my words, I will speak and you will hear it, but you shall not comprehend, you must let your mind get past the concreteness of our existence and stretch into the abstract."  
  
I closed my eyes, my heart rate began to increased, my breathing increased, but I knew that I must focus I had no time to worry about how much pain I felt. I closed my eyes and regained control over my breathing; I cleared my mind forgetting about my heart rate, forgetting the pain, Jay's voice began to fade away from me his words blended, making a mesh of nonsensical phrases. Soon all I could make out was the sound of his voice no words, just the sound far in the distance, silence and darkness surrounded me, peace began to fall over me. Then I felt wind blowing through my hair, the smell of death surrounded me. I opened my eyes and found myself standing in the middle of my village during the battle, I could see the slaughter, hear the screams it was a nightmare. I felt a hand grasp my shoulder; I turned and found Jay standing behind me wearing a ridiculous grin.  
  
"Well, well got it on the first try huh? Not bad, usually it takes months just to get to this point; I'm quite impressed with kid."  
  
"My father taught me how to meditate; it helped with my magic lessons, focusing the mind to become synchronized with the elements, this isn't that much different." I was lying; the amount of focus was putting an unusually large amount of strain on my mind, luckily, while I was in this state, I couldn't feel the strain. Nevertheless, one could tell that I was under it, the world created by my mind shook, and swayed, the images blurred and swirled. I needed to talk to Jay to keep myself grounded here, "So why is my mind showing me this?"  
  
"It's what your mind is subconsciously focused on, it's not something you want to remember, but it is something that will always be here. Now you got to this point quite quickly, but your focus is not yet strong enough to cross minds. For the next few weeks, this is what you will be doing the time you wake until nightfall; I will have meals ready while you do this. At night, we will have fighting practice, both martial, and with weapons, I will teach you some ancient techniques long forgotten by time. But for now you should come out of here and go to sleep, I just wanted to know how much work you would need." With that Jay vanished from my mind, I was alone, screams echoed through the village, bodies fell but I just closed my eyes.  
  
My headache began to return, slowly at first, the pain was tolerable for about ten seconds, and then it hit me at full force. I opened my eyes only to see the floor moving towards me at an incredible speed, thud, my head hit the floor and hard the room around me began to spin. I tried to sit up but every move I made caused my head to swell with pain, I felt Jay's hands grab at my left arm and aid me to my feet. He walked me to my bed and at the exact moment that he released my arm, my body fell onto the bed, and I fell into a deep sleep.  
  
The next few weeks past in much the same way, I'd wake up early in the morning, about an hour after daybreak, walk outside to the well and pull a bucket of water. I'd wash up, and cast a cleansing spell on my clothes, and head to the kitchen. Jay would cast a creation spell to create food; I would eat quickly and hurriedly and make minor repairs to the weapons and armor that were damaged the night before. Immediately after I finished I would begin my "awareness" lessons, for about a week and a half I was unable to go more than two hours before I would either collapse or black out from the pain, however, by the second week I was able to hold it for the full four-hour session before the second meal. By the fourth week I was able to skip lunch and would no longer awaken with little and sometimes even no headache. Then we would have the third meal after the eighth hour of meditation we would have the third meal, following that Jay would teach me armorer techniques that originated from the ancient Arzonian clans that once held control over the world, this lasted for about three hours. By this time, night would have fallen and Jay would begin to train me in the fighting arts of the West, it was a test of physical longevity and control, often I was unable to last a full two hours.  
  
After four weeks Jay intensified my training, he began to teach me mind walking, an incredible experience that left my mind exhausted. Jay would revitalize me and make me continue, after about three weeks I was able to mind walk freely. Once this happened Jay would have me do physically strenuous activities and mind walk. In addition, I was becoming very talented in the western fighting styles, and began to train in it more heavily. Eventually Jay taught me a spell that revived my mind, body and spirit. So basically I never had to sleep, with that occurring I found that I was able to not only train but study the books that I had taken from my village.  
  
Months began to pass and I could mind walk freely at any time while doing anything; I had mastered all the fighting styles of the east, several obscure styles of the Arzonian's, and a style called "gro-gial-frab" an orcish monk style that favored strength over speed and agility. An intense training routine would leave my body bruised and bloody after the first half hour. Jay would switch styles constantly so that I would become familiar with all of them. It took time but after nine months I was able to match Jay move for move, blow for blow, I was able to match the speed of a vampire.  
  
After the first year of training I no longer was weighed down by sleep or pain, the spells Jay taught me took care of my need to sleep and my wounds to heal quickly. I spent any time not practicing studying the spell books I took from the village, I was beginning to learn the magics within, and soon I hopped to be able to master them. Jay also began to teach me a way with the blade that was lost to the world long before the hunters came, an ancient art that had been used by the legendary Culsafray; angelic warriors that fought in the war of dominance. They say that the Culsafray settled on earth and slowly died out, but it would seem that they did not die out the vampires had gotten them.  
  
It seemed, as the years slowly past that every time I was able to master something Jay would start to teach me something new, and each time the lessons would bring more pain to my body and my mind. It happened sometime during the third year of training that I found myself nearly unable to continue the training, my mind collapsed upon itself, the strain of three years without actual rest, the constant pain and agony of it all had broken me. I found myself alone wandering in the darkness that was my mind, pained screams echoed in the vast darkness. I wandered through shadows, alone, my only company the echoes and the muffled screams, always reminding me, reminding me that I survived while others died, I was never not allowed to die at my time. Maybe that was the key maybe it truly was not my time and that is why I was spared, yeah right, maybe. However I didn't believe that I was alive when it happened, when I awoke the day after the battle I had wished that I had died, but wishing didn't make me dead, it just made me less alive.  
  
There was something in the screaming that at first I was unable to understand, the words jumbled together, and nearly inaudible a message that I knew I had to hear and yet one that I could not hear. Time passed, hours seemed like days, and there was no light, only me, I was not sure if I was even in that dark place, but I remember it so I must have been. Slowly the voice would grow louder, bits and pieces began to come through, eventually I managed to decipher the words, they were some of the last words Orlaendric had said to me, "You must choose whether or not to become one who exists outside of time." I still did not understand those words, but since it seemed that, I would be here for quite some time I decided to think about those words. I had no idea where to start, or where the finish would be, out side of time, those words together made little sense.  
  
I concentrated, within my own mind I focused myself, began to meditate, to call for someone to aid me, what I was not prepared for was what would answer. The cawing of a raven echoed in the distance, growing faintly louder with every passing second until it was upon me. It landed at my feet, its hauntingly black eyes seemed to peer through me, I do not know how I could see the bird in the blackness nor did I care. Munin seemed to await me to speak to it, I had difficulty finding the words within me, to find the part of me that could ask for help. I asked Munin to summon his master here, I pleaded to the bird to fetch Odin to aid me, for I felt as though I were in more danger here than I was at the hunter camp during the hoards attack. Munin stared at me with intent eyes as though to ensure that I had finished, when the raven seemed satisfied it took off flying back to the darkness from whence it came.  
  
When it left all sounds stopped, no screams, or cries or repeated messages, just silence, silence and darkness. I waited for what seemed like hours for a reply to my message, I began to fear that no one was coming that I was stuck here, but from the darkness, a flash of light appeared and washed away the darkness. The Darkness was replaced with a bright white light that seemed to emanate from all around me, and there he stood, Orlaendric, dressed in extravagant robes, an amazing gold crown circled his head. He was smiling, his one eye shone a bright blue, and the socket of his missing eye glowed a deep green.  
  
"Here I thought you had completely forgotten that you had a decision," Orlaendric crossed his arms his eye glaring at me, a giant smile across his face.  
  
"You knew that I had forgotten didn't you, that's why I'm here isn't it?"  
  
Orlaendric pointed to his nose, "correct, I knew that you would have given it little if any thought, you just needed a little prodding. Besides I thought that perhaps you could use a little rest from your torment, I mean training." Orlaendric laughed, and walked over to me and put his mighty arm around me; he motioned behind us with his head.  
  
As I turned around the emptiness was replaced by a wondrous garden, filled with trees, flowers and hedges, unseen birds sang tuneless songs. A small stream ran along the eastern side, Orlaendric led me up a small green hill and stopped as we reached the top, he removed his arm from around me. He walked in front of me and turned to face me, "Zamieon," he began his tone was serious, "for everything there is a price, there is no such thing as a free deal, no good thing comes without a price weighing it down, some are heavier than others. Take myself for instance, I gained limitless knowledge, I was given the knowledge of all that was and all that would - all that could be, but in exchange I gave my eye, and a small portion of my power."  
  
"What is my choice?"  
  
"Yours? Whether or not to exist out side of time, though I suppose that is a vague description, I guess that I could tell you what that means. First, the consequences; if you deny it you will be unable to defeat your enemy, to gain revenge for your people, though you will live a normal life, and die as nature intended. On the other hand, should you accept you would have the time in which to gain your revenge, as well you could see every one of their kind killed before you, however, you will become hunted, loathed and feared by more than just the vampires. Zamieon, what I will offer you is immortality, for as long as vampires live, I would bid you to hunt them. I know that it is a difficult choice, but I want you to take your time and think about it alright?"  
  
I was shocked, immortality, never to die, is not that what humanity has always sought. "You mean that I would never die?"  
  
Orlaendric shook his head, "no not quite, you can die, however your body will revive so long as either you heart and lungs are not destroyed or at least your mind is undamaged. Should your head be cut off, it could regenerate a new body, or your body could regenerate a new head. Of course if your body is incinerated than the game is over, you are done. So be careful alright."  
  
"So you're going to leave now?"  
  
"I see no need to stay any longer, you have less than two years to think about what you shall do, as well you still have quite a lot to learn from Jay, farewell and good luck to you young Malanchite." Orlaendric snapped his fingers and was gone.  
  
I sat up the room around me spun for a few seconds and the sunlight blinded me briefly. I shook it off as quickly as and saw jay standing in the doorway arms crossed, his hair a mess and his clothes sticky with blood. His voice gently moved through my mind, "you're lucky I'm here hunter, or you'd be dead. A small group of vampires attacked last night, came after me, seems my betrayal is known, looks like I may be sticking with you a little longer than I had anticipated." He walked over to the bed and put his hand on my forehead, "well at least your fever is gone, I don't know what happened to you but you had me sweatin'."  
  
"Sorry it seems Odin borrowed me for a while," came my reply, even though I had not used it for some time I could still mind-walk. I must have been under quite the spell even a vampire raid had not woken me, and it seemed Orlaendric's power is not just legend. Jay went to get changed and cleaned up, I dragged my heavy body from the bed and began to ready myself for training once more.  
  
The next two years were hard, harder than the first three, but it was worth it, I learned much more than I could ever have imagined anyone could learn. It was summer; my twenty-first birthday was approaching, as was the day that I would make the decision. I weighed my options carefully. On one hand, I had vengeance, freedom from the fear of death. Powers that I could learn, I could free the world from the terror that is the vampire hoard. However, I began to wonder whether I would actually come to fear it more in time, maybe letting nature take its course was the best thing. Maybe the world would progress fine without me; the different races would unite and face the hoard together. I heard Jay approach from behind me; he moved quietly, it seemed that the grass itself failed to notice him approach. He looked over the field with me, glancing around nervously for the arrival of Orlaendric. "Jay, you seem tense, can I get you something?"  
  
"Yeah you could get me some water from the well, and if you wouldn't mind could you bring me one of the hens?"  
  
"Of course, I had forgotten when the last time you fed was, I apologize." It seemed that a vampire that doesn't drain the life-force of a creature gradually gets weaker, feeding on chickens and cattle may have been able to tide Jay over it was not enough, he needed something stronger. I wondered how long it would be before Jay returned to feeding on humans, elves and any other beings that he could get his hands on, but I knew he would not kill. I returned to Jay with the water and the chicken, he grabbed the chicken from my hands quickly and began to feed off its life-force. He placed his free hand over top of it, a faint blue light appeared around the chicken that slowly began pass into Jay, as the light was drawn the chicken began to become weak, feathers slowly fell off of it, and soon it went limp, Jay let it's corpse fall to the ground. I offered the water, Jay nodded and drank slowly from the bucket, and he finished quickly, wiping the excess water from around his lips. He seemed less jumpy after feeding, even so he shook and swayed form time to time, he said it happens when a vampire goes to long without a good feeding, sometimes it can lead to vomiting and other sickness, if a vampire were to go to long without draining the life-force from something it could result in death.  
  
Jay walked back into the hut and finished packing; he assumed we would be leaving as soon as Orlaendric told us what the next move was to be. I had finished packing the day before; I leaned against a large stump that stood in front of the hut. The wind blew gently through the tall grass that swayed like waves in the ocean, that is when I was it, a body wearing a garment that blew in the wind; maybe a cape, or a cloak. It was neither of those things it was a long coat.  
  
I noticed traces of gold blowing in the wind, I was in near disbelief, I pushed my self away from the stump and broke into a full run. My heart started racing, she was far away, barley visible but I didn't care I could reach her in no time. As I drew nearer to her, I could make out her eyes, blue clearer than any water, deeper than all the oceans combined, and a blue that would make the sky jealous. My voice came pouring out of me, joyous, "Elrohinile!" It had been the first word I had spoken in a long time. I increased my pace, I saw her beautiful elven head rise to look at me, she stopped moving for a brief moment, her eyes lit up brighter than before, she smiled her wondrous smile and ran towards me. Though I could not hear her, I knew she was calling to me, I mind-walked to her saying, "I had missed you," what surprised me is that I received a response.  
  
"And I you, my Malanchite." I had forgotten that she was telepathic and was capable of mind walking on a level that I could not imagine. As we drew close she jumped at me, surprisingly not only did I catch her but I was able to spin on my heal as I drew her closer, she pulled me tight, using what I thought was all her strength to hold me tight. I could feel tears of joy rolling down my face, as our eyes met I saw she was to. She drew her hand over my left cheek to wipe it away, she smiled as she spoke, "guess some things just aren't meant to heal, huh."  
  
"Wha-" she was talking about the scar, "I decided to keep it, a reminder so that I never forget just what I am after." I think that I found more of what I was after in that moment than I had the other five years, companionship, something more than friendship. "Come on, we should get up to the hut, Jay's waiting, Orlaendric should be here soon." Elrohinile tugged at my arm and wrapped hers around it, "what is it?"  
  
"Call Jay, tell him to meet us at the cleft of rupture about forty kilometers south, and not to worry about packing Odin Will take care of it."  
  
"Odin? Oh right Orlaendric's other name."  
  
"He prefers it, more worlds' use it to refer to him, oh and Munin will no longer be with you."  
  
"O.k. I'll let him know hold on." I mind-walked and it seemed that Odin had become impatient and already told Jay. "Jay already knows, we better hurry or we'll be late." We both double timed it, and surprisingly this time it was Elrohinile who was falling behind, in the end it took under an hour to arrive, and as it turned out we were the first to arrive. Jay arrived about five minutes after us, and Odin appeared immediately after, for what I could assume was dramatic effect. We were standing next to the Cleft that ran around the thousand foot deep area.  
  
Odin turned to me and said but one word, "and?"  
  
I looked around Jay and Elrohinile who sat motionless their eyes fixated on me, I then turned to Odin, I took a deep breath and answered in one word, "yes."  
  
He smiled and extended his arms in front of him, there was a flash of light. As the light faded I could see that Odin was holding a spear, he extended the tip towards me. "This is Gungnir, no bargain, no deal no words spoken upon its blade can be broken, so to you Zamieon I ask it again. To swear to hunt the vampires down, to kill them all, to live until your task is completed?"  
  
"I do."  
  
"To you swear that you will do my bidding, to answer when I call, to head the advise I give?"  
  
"I do."  
  
"To these things I hold you Zamieon Malanchite, last true hunter, and future hero of this and many other worlds. In addition, to you I pledge my aid, whatever I can give I will give, whatever I can spare shall be spared. On the blade of Gungnir I swear that this agreement shall last as long as I draw breath." Then the Spear was gone and Odin approached me and lay his hands upon my head, "take a knee friend," I complied. "For the spirits of the dead shall not see you, Farbanti and his boat shall not help you cross the river of the dead, you will not see Hela, her voice you shall not hear, death will not take you. By all the power I poses I take away that which makes you man, I take away your mortality."  
  
A strange feeling came over me, a feeling that crawled down my spine and spread throughout my body, it left me cold, and shaking, as thou the temperature dropped to near freezing. Then as quickly as it came it was gone and Odin released my head, he smiled deeply at me. "You will make me proud."  
  
"Thank you my lord, I shall not fail you."  
  
He smiled and turned to Jay, Elrohinile, and myself, "from here I want you to head over to the kingdom of Karod'Zileah. You will find a renegade vampire toying with these people, he has set himself up as the court adviser and had made the king is his puppet. You must free the people from this vampire I want to see him dead. Consider this a test, to see how well the three of you can work together, oh and squeeze him for information; he will lead you to your next target, good luck to you all." With that Odin vanished, he left us there to make the trek to Karod'Zileah, a kingdom to the north-west.  
  
It would be a long journey, typically tacking about two months; the problem was not getting there it was what to do once we got there. Jay stood up, "well no time like the present, no telling what this vampire might be up to."  
  
"You have a plan?" I asked Jay, who already seemed excited to go.  
  
"Yeah, we get there, find this vampire take him into a dark ally and slowly skin him while rubbing salt in his wounds till he tells us what we need to know, sound good?"  
  
"At the very least it's a start," Elrohinile piped in her voice was too happy to match the conversation.  
  
Jay reached into the sack he was carrying on his back, he handed me my breastplate and coat, and we each looked at one another and without another word began to make our way to the kingdom of Karod'Zileah. 


	6. Of Steel And Stone

Chapter IV: Of Steel And Stone  
  
The journey was indeed long filled with hardships, to many and most undeserving of telling, the largest problem seemed to be Jay. Elrohinile learned spells to conceal Jay's appearance, made him look like a human, which was no issue; the issue was Jay's need to feed. Often the Journey from town to town would weaken Jay to a near death point, his skin often whiter than sheep's wool. His strength would fall and he would often perspire terribly. He would take small amounts of energy from sleeping villagers, but it seemed that it was not enough. He told us that the master fed off the energy of his children, and since he was not feeding regularly, he was being drained of his own energy reserves.  
  
We were now about six days travel from the kingdom Karod'Zileah and approached the Harkloang woods a dense and lush forest. I could feel something off in the woods, the sent of death came at us from all angels, filling our lungs. Jay looked around and smiled darkly to himself, he knew what we were up against and it made him happy. I glanced around; I began to notice blood covering the ground and trees. As we walked further the stench grew and so did the blood, it was old blood, dried and even bleached by the sun, the dirt had been died red. Vegetation had been pushed down and broken as though something had been dragged through the forest, as we followed the trail we began to hear voices. They spoke in grunts and shouts, no words formed no clear language being spoken, noises like animals, then I knew what were up against, berserkers.  
  
Men but not regular men, they were wild and powerful, transformed by magic and hate. Their brains were as mush, they desired only too kill, no words could calm them and no known magic could cure them, they were terrible hunters killing everything and anything. Killing them was difficult, they did not feel pain or fear, they were beasts, you could slice and cut them but still they would come. Luckily, night had fallen two hours ago and Jay seemed to be very glad to know that the berserkers were near.  
  
"I'll handle them," Jay said in a low voice, his arm extended to the south and there stood two very dangerous looking berserkers. They appeared to be drow berserkers, clothed in animal hides and caring very large axes. Jay smiled, "tonight I feed, and feed well," with that he transformed into mist and began to move along the forest floor.  
  
The berserkers didn't seem to notice him but as we stood silently the wind shifted, and the berserkers caught our sent. They turned to face us, unable to see us they began to slowly move in our direction gripping the wooden axe handles. As they moved closer, the blanket of mist rose before them and Jay took form. His hands grasped their heads covering their mouths; their howls silenced. Effortlessly Jay lifted them, legs flailing, striking him, Jays hands began to glow a pale green, and the color began to fade from the berserkers faces, the hatred in their eyes faded and were replaced by fear, their flesh began to sag, the hair from their heads fell, and they grew skinny and aged. Their axes fell to the ground, Jay tightened his grasp and their jaws shattered and spayed blood onto him, and he released them, their bodies dead before they hit the ground.  
  
Jay turned back towards us, his skin was less pale, and his eye was glowing a deep red, an evil smile covered his face. As he walked towards us, three more berserkers came crashing through the forest, howling like demons, flames burned in their eyes. Jay spun around on one heel and walked towards them, he picked up the fallen axes and through them with incredible speed and power, the fist axe struck the middle berserker, splitting his lower right abdomen spilling the creatures internal organs onto the ground, the second cleared its head off, blood spraying like a fountain into the air. The head landed just a few seconds before the body, the other two did not seem to notice and continued to charge, the first swung at Jay, Jay's hand grasped the handle of the axe and pulled it from the berserkers hand and flung it at the other. The axe imbedded itself into the skull of the berserker nearly cleaving it in two; the berserker's body fell and slid about a foot along the ground leaving a smear of blood. Jay grasped the last berserker's throat and began to feed off its soul. Once again, the creature aged quickly, Jay squeezed and soon a loud snap could be heard and the beasts head fell back lifeless, Jay released the corpse. He turned and began to walk towards us, his build had grown, his face only vaguely pale and covered in blood, his hair shone in the light of the moon, his eye had stopped glowing.  
  
"That felt good," he said in a hushed voice the smile crept slowly back over his face, his voice seemed darker. "Worry not, I don't feed like that often, but I was in dire need of the energy, and berserkers are teeming with it."  
  
"I never witnessed a vampire feed before," I said softly, and then I raised my head and stared at Jay, "I pray I do not see it again."  
  
Jay smirked, "arrogant, just like all humans, I do not scoff at you for eating a cow, or another beast. You feed on them to survive, just as I do with mortals, without this energy I die, I do not get the same charge from beasts as I do men or elves. These are my sheep, my cattle, what the meat these animals provide for you, the living provide for us."  
  
"That is all well in good, but our creatures are dead before we begin to eat them."  
  
"Believe me Zamieon, once a vampire catches its prey it is dead." He cocked his head to the side to beckon us follow him, he laughed darkly to himself.  
  
Jay had been right though there was little difference between him and me, I killed for my sustenance as did he, what difference does it make from whence it came, always we feed off weaker creatures, why should it be different for a Vampire. The night air once filled with death was now past us, as we trudged through the thick growth the smell of nature filled my lungs. Fresh air carried with it the scent of wild flowers, the air was colder then I was used to, my breath hung in the air before me like smoke from the fire. I shivered, and hurriedly began to put my coat on. The ground was already becoming wet with fresh dew, voices of the ferries and wood elves echoed through the trees. Songs of nature's children played through its majestic halls of green and brown, leaves blew and trees swayed in the wind, movement surrounded us, beasts moved quietly hunting the night for a meal.  
  
We walked the rest of the night without trouble, as day broke we made camp, by my best estimations it would be another night of walking until we made the other side of the forest. Luckily, this was a short cut; we would have only another day's travel from there, instead of the four that it would have taken to walk around the woods. Jay transformed into a wolf and made himself comfortable on the dew laid ground, both Elrohinile and my self pulled a large piece of deer hide over a low branch to shade our eyes from the sun. Soon with little talk, my eyes closed and I was out, sleep crept quickly over me.  
  
I awoke some time after mid-day, the sun still hung high in the sky, Jay and Elrohinile were still both sleeping, I stood up and began to walk west. I soon came upon a small creek fresh water flowed almost everywhere in this forest; I bent down closer to the water. I cleaned myself off, and then I drank of the water. As the cool breath of the water touched my lips the taste of iron filled my mouth and immediately I spat the refreshing water out, blood. The taste would remain for a while for the felt as though it had coated my tongue with iron. I looked from whence this river had flown, it was flowing from the west, it would seem that mush death lay before us.  
  
I went back to camp and woke the others, Jay growled still in wolf form Elrohinile woke with less anger and more enthusiasm, I suggested we start moving now as we had already missed some kind of slaughter.  
  
"What do you mean 'slaughter?'" Elrohinile asked her voice filled with worry.  
  
"The water in the stream teems with the taste of blood, no single creature could taint the water as such." My voice was as still as I could make it, I had become excited, I had long been waiting to test my powers.  
  
"Show me," Jay called out as he fixed the last button on his shirt. I took him to the stream; he bent down and drank form the water, huge gulps he lapped up, drinking almost greedily. "Your right Zamieon, there was death, a great deal of it and magic as well, dark magic. This blood is old though, I can taste its staleness, and I'm guessing two to three weeks old; we should press on and quickly."  
  
Thus, we doubled our pace and made a near run to the edge of the forest, even at near full speed the journey took four hours. The sweat beat down my face drenching me, leaving my face and hair sticky, my shirt soaked through the back. The sight that awaited us on the other side was far less than favorable. Scorched black earth covered in corpses, some beaten and cut the rest charred and black. There was no stench of death here though but the presence of magic was all around, truly something terrible had happened here. Jay moved into the black earth and began to rummage through the bodies, soon finding what he was looking for.  
  
"Here it is," he said pulling a banner from underneath on of the bodies. "It's the sign of the House of Rakorlanz, a great kingdom of rouges and assassins. Most honorable men, now most are dead, killed by that filthy Rezillian." Jay spat at the mention of that name.  
  
"You knew him?" I asked as I slowly approached Jay.  
  
"Aye I knew him, not sure if he was worse a mortal or a vampire. In his time he made killings like this simply for fun, this is not a challenge for him; he uses powerful spells to defeat his enemies."  
  
"How can you be sure it's him?" asked Elrohinile as she made her way towards us.  
  
"This place reeks of his stink, his scent is like the plague, it spreads to anything that gets too close to it, and nothing can get that kind of smell off. We vampires can smell each others scent like wolves." Jay stood up, and turned to the west, "we should hurry, for there is no telling just what kind of damage Rezillian has already caused in Karod'Zileah." Jay transformed back into a wolf and bounded away at full speed to the west.  
  
Elrohinile and I followed as closely as we could, running the rest of the way to Karod'Zileah. We arrived only about an hour before nightfall, I was sweating heavily, my heart raced, my lungs filled and emptied in rapid successions. The sight that befell us was a horrid one, bodies hung from the outer walls of the kingdoms ramparts; nails driven through them, the area reeked of death and decay. It seemed that some of the bodies had been there for some time, others were still moaning in pain, blood trickled down, wetting the ground around the wall. We began to walk around the side of the wall to the main gate, screams of pain could be heard coming form the city, it was enough to freeze your blood. Two of the largest stone golems I had ever seen guarded the gates; they made trolls look like Halflings, at least ten feet tall a piece.  
  
As we walked towards the gates, a voice came from the tall grass; "pssst, travelers that way is not wise come into the grass I'll take you somewhere safe." Jay sniffed the air and nodded his furry head, to signal that it was safe, as we moved into the grass a hand tugged at my coat. I looked down to see a man in soldier's armor; his long brown hair was unkempt and full of dirt, as were his clothes and armor. "The kingdom has been over run by a fowl creature, follow me, I'll take you to the others."  
  
He led us down a small trail of pushed down grass, it would seem that this vampire was not concerned with the survivors, it was far too easy to track them. The path led to a hole in the ground, a large hole about six feet in diameter, as we climbed down we found ourselves in an underground tunnel system. Torches hung on the walls providing dim lighting to the caverns, the stranger led us down a well-worn tunnel, I heard a thud behind me and quickly turned, it seemed as though Jay was going to remain in wolf form. "There are few who escaped the town, after that monster released those golems, the rest are either dead or in the dungeons waiting to die. Every night Rezillian adds another to the wall, the screams are beginning to drive those of us here mad."  
  
"Why is he doing that?" asked Elrohinile in a monotone voice.  
  
"He wants us to deliver one of us to him."  
  
"Why don't you comply?"  
  
"This person is the only one who may save us from the chimera beast he made."  
  
"Chimera?" A voice behind me called, Jay had turned into his vampiric self.  
  
The soldier was startled, but that changed into anger as he drew his sword, "you brought another one of those here with you, how dare you!"  
  
"Please if I was anything like Rezillian you'd have been dead three minutes ago." Jay spoke as he brushed past the soldier, "now, please, tell me about this Chimera."  
  
The guard sheathed his sword, "I guess your right, Rezillian spent little time in killing most of the royal guard. The Chimera was once our finest warrior, Dawnslo, son of Dannoth, but Rezillian changed him. Now he is one of those golem creatures, only he is a combination of stone, steel, man and demon, no weapon we have used can even scratch him. Not only that but he has a strange black magic sword, no actual blade, just pure dark energy surging from the hilt."  
  
"And this person is so important why?"  
  
"We don't know, its just fairly obvious that if Rezillian wants her than she is the last person he should get."  
  
"Who is she?" I asked, curiosity was getting the best of me.  
  
"Follow me I'll introduce you all to her." The guard continued deeper into the cave, until we came upon a group of doors that ran along a long hallway. We walked to the end and turned to face a heavy Iron door, the guard placed his had on the door, "imbelum ifinuim." The door opened without a creek, a young women lay on a sheep skin bed. "Allow me to introduce to you Sheris, priestess of Iniufus goddess of light. Sheris these people are..."  
  
"I am Jay, a Vampire who has been sent to rid this land of my kin."  
  
I stepped forward bowing, "I am Zamieon Malanchite, immortal and last of the hunters."  
  
Elrohinile stepped forward, "I am Elrohinile Treeblossom, shield maiden of Asgard, I have been sent to protect you." This was news too me, I had no idea that she had more information of the mission than Jay or I.  
  
"Quite the party you have," Sheris replied a faint smile pressed upon her face. Her beauty was beyond compare, she had long dark brown hair, and deep green eyes. Her face was flush and smooth, filled with youthful energy, the dim light shone off it as if it were as clear water. It seemed to make her glow, and then it dawned on me that it was not her glowing it was her robes, the robes of a priestess of light are blessed.  
  
I decided that I wanted to know just what had happened, "so what did happen here, how did things end up like this?"  
  
Sheris began to speak, quietly "It started four weeks ago, the court seer, and a great man named Quilathous disappeared, leaving his apprentice Rezillian in his place. It seemed odd that no one questioned what happened he just seemed to slide into place. He quickly gained the trust of the king and court, but he made things change in a hurry. Relations between Karod'Zileah and our neighboring kingdoms crumbled we were on the brink of war, and no one seemed to care, Rezillian was pulling everyone's strings. Then about two weeks ago the House of Rakorlanz came and war was to be waged. Rezillian and Dawnslo led our soldiers into combat but the house of Rakorlanz greatly outnumbered us, but that did not matter in time. On the field it was a slaughter, soldiers rushed into combat nearly an hour before nightfall; from what I hear bodies cleaved away at one another, blood covered the ground. Then night fell, and Rezillian let loose his furry, fire rained from the heavens, explosions lifted the earth, tore through bodies and armor.  
  
From what Dawnslo had told me there was not a man on that field left alive, luckily, most of our troops were off the field at the time; Rezillian had given a signal for them to retreat. The smoke could be seen from the castle, and the stench was overpowering. The following night there was a celebration for the victory, our mead hall was overflowing with bodies, music and laughter was deafening. This was also the last night that I had seen Dawnslo, he had told me much about the battle most just horrors of battle, he seemed to have a hatred towards Rezillian, said he was a mad man, a murderer. Dawnslo was the only person who seemed to see through the smoke cloud that Rezillian had blown over the rest of the kingdom, even over myself. The next day everything changed, it was early morning and there was word that Dawnslo was missing, as well as Rezillian. At midday there was a large ruckus at the gates of the city, Rezillian and an army of about fifty golems were standing at the gates demanding that the king surrender the castle and all the civilians within its walls to him. Naturally he declined, he sent a squadron of one hundred soldiers to dispense with the golems and their leader, unfortunately they were no match for one of them.  
  
When they attacked only one golem fought them, the smallest of the group, the soldiers weapons broke upon its skin like the tide off rocks. The golem smashed their skulls in with its fists, blood soaked the ground and screams echoed through the courtyard. The golem was Dawnslo, the face was the same, but his eyes were empty devoid of life. Within moments they had broken the gates open, the crashing silenced the screams for a moment, then the screams doubled as the golems began their massacre of the people, I was knocked unconscious by the running people and when I awoke I was here, the rest I believe that you already know."  
  
Jay seemed to have been struck by something, "beg your pardon my lady, but how long have you known this Dawnslo?" His eye seemed to shine in the dark as though he had some dark plan boiling inside his mind. "Well I've known since we were children his father fell in combat, my father was his father's childhood friend so naturally he took Dawnslo in." She seemed surprised by Jay's curiosity.  
  
"You were close than?"  
  
"Well ye-yes, but I don't see what this has to do with anything."  
  
Jay turned to Elrohinile, "Your spells to transform a persons form, can you do animals as well?"  
  
"Beg your pardon," came a near stunned answer.  
  
"Can you transform some one into an animal?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"All-right, I've got a plan, now pay attention I only want to go through this once. Zamieon, you and I will attack the city head on, guard boy, sorry I missed you name, have you got maces, flails mourning-stars, anything blunt and destructive?"  
  
"Names Garrik, and yes flails and maces."  
  
"I'll need two of each; we'll clean most of the golems out of the city and make our way to the castle, if I know Rezillian that's where he will be held up. Now Zamieon I can handle Rezillian but I will need you to hold back Dawnslo, but be careful; if I am right his blade is called the Fushilartsoi, a blade forged by demons, powerful enough to strike down the gods. I'll signal for you then Elrohinile, you'll bring Sheris to us."  
  
"I can get her there simple enough but what will the signal be?"  
  
"When flame and lightning ignite the night sky, but we will have to wait till tomorrow."  
  
"Why?" Came the gruff voice of Garrik his tone holding an annoyed tone.  
  
"Because, fool, I like Rezillian am a vampire as such I function better under the guise of night."  
  
"Of course, I'll show you to a free room." Garrik seemed bitter and angry by us staying but also not attempted to stop us. We followed him out of the room and back towards the way that we came, this time to an open room. "Its all we have right now, rest I'll come for you at dusk tomorrow with flails and maces, good-night, may Baulder bless you." With that, he turned and left us, and we each found our place in rest. I found it to be the best rest that I had in a long while.  
  
When I awoke it was already near dusk, Jay and Elrohinile were both already awake and talking with one another when Jay noticed me shake off the sleep. "Well, I'm impressed hunter; most people can't sleep the night before they could die."  
  
"Well see that's where I get off lucky, there is no way I can die tonight, or tomorrow night, etcetera, etcetera." I said jokingly, I was scared out of my mind, laughter made it less noticeable.  
  
Jay pointed to my feet, as I sat up I noticed the flail an mace lain out before me, "you'll need those, swords are of little use against these beasts of stone. Well I suggest that the two of us make our way to the castle, and now." He turned to leave while still talking, "you remember your part right Elrohinile?"  
  
"Of course," she spoke as she nodded.  
  
"Fare thee well, I'll see you soon." I pulled her close, our lips met briefly, we smiled and I walked out. I followed Jay down the narrow corridor; the flail weighing heavily at my side, the mace held loose in my hand, the air was heavy in the caverns, muggy and filled with death.  
  
We walked out into the world, the sky was red with the setting sun, as though it were on fire, there was no much distance to the walls of the castle, soon the sounds of death would echo through the silence of night. The sun continued to fall as we approached the gates, I could see two of the golems add another person to their wall, a small child maybe ten this time, screaming and crying. Her legs kicking it did no good I could hear the thunder and see the shaking of the wall as they drove the spikes into her. Her screams stopped, her head fell, she had passed out from the pain, and the golems moved back inside the gates, they moved slowly, it would be easy to take them out.  
  
Jay stood up and allowed the ball of the flail to hit the ground; he tightened his grasp on the long metal chain of the flail. Then in a quick blur Jay moved towards the gates, I could barley make him out, I could see the flail spinning in his hand, hew drew in on the golems. The first one did not have a chance to react, the flail smashed through its body, crumbling it to the ground, the second turned only to meet with Jays flail. Rubble covered the ground at the gate; Jay motioned for me to join him, I cast a couple of spells to aid me. A burst speed spell it would allow me to keep up with Jay and a godly strength spell to make myself much strong enough to take on these hulks unarmed. I rushed over to Jay, as he tore the steel gate from the frame of the large door and flung it a few feet behind him, it landed hard on the ground sending a mist of dust flying into the air. Jay rushed into the city with me following close behind; the streets were crawling with golems, their heavy footsteps echoing off the coble stone streets.  
  
"Zamieon, take out as many golems as you can, we don't need them coming in on our flank sides while we fight Rezillian and his main golem. I want you take the streets to the left, I'll go right, kill them all." He turned and took the streets to the right, I could already hear the crumbling of stone, Jay's screams echoed through the night.  
  
I turned heading down the road to the left, moving quickly, weaving through side streets, my flail spun shattering through the stone creatures, their ruble falling hard to the ground. The first twelve fell easily, but my flail broke against the thirteenth, its massive stone fist hit hard against my breastplate shattering it and quite possibly breaking a few ribs. Pain shot through me, I briefly coughed up blood, and staggered back a few steps. The golem drew its arm back to strike again I caught its mighty hand in mid swing and through the hulking brute into a wall, its body cracked and crumbled. I fell to my knees, the coughing started for me again, the blood flowed fresh with every one, I cast a recovery spell upon myself. The pain went away and the blood stopped flowing, I lifted my coat and pulled the mace from my belt, I was wasting no more time I charged at the castle, destroying the few golems that still stood in my way.  
  
I dropped my mace as I approached the large castle walls, two golems guarded the large wooden door, amazing patterns had been carved into it, lions and phoenixes covered the lower half. I charged at full speed and attacked the golems did not even have time to react; the crumbling sound of their rocky bodies was music to my ears. I stood waiting for Jay, I heard more crumbling in the side streets somewhere, drawing slowly closer, and then I saw him approaching at top speed, covered in dust. When he got next to me, he sat on the cobblestone street using his arms to support himself.  
  
"So what do you think, managed to take down all the golems watching the city in less than twenty minutes, we could always take a rest for a while." Jay spoke with a wide smile; he enjoyed this violence, like a drug that gave him some unknown sensation of power.  
  
"And what happens when Rezillian realizes that all his golems are gone? Will more people die; can you handle more evil on your conscience when you die?"  
  
"People die Zamieon, men, woman, children, they all die nothing can stop that, you'll learn that in time, and in time you'll become more like me."  
  
"That I highly doubt Jay."  
  
"Whatever you say child, but do not think me harsh or uncaring, just realistic."  
  
"What is realistic about letting people die when you can save them?"  
  
"Save them from what, death? You cannot save something that lives from dying, every day that they live they die a little more, all you do by saving them from evil is prolong the dying process." Jay stood up and pushed the large wooden doors open as wide as they would go. I followed closely behind Jay who began to walk up some large stone steps leading to the higher towers. As we climbed higher I began to hear a dark voice singing, echoing through the great empty castle, once in a while a groaning or scream could be heard far below us, the people were locked in the dungeons in the lower sections of the castle. We climbed till we reached a large hallway, that was heavily lit with torches, shadows danced and cast themselves over the blood stained walls. Large windows on either side showed the night sky light brightly by moon and stars. A large set of red doors lay at the end of the hall, and there in front of the doors stood the last golem.  
  
He appeared to be maybe five-five or five-six, just a little shorter than Jay and myself. His hair reflected the torch light, it appeared to be metallic, and the metal of his body could be seen beneath the rock, speckles of light cast along the walls reflecting off him. Jay stood in silence his eyes fixated on the golem. My heart rate started to skip beats; I could feel my palms starting to sweat.  
  
"Zamieon," Jay started his voice a whisper. "That must be the one that can't be killed, well I'm sure you could but try not to, I think we should keep him around for a while. Just hold him here as long as you can I'll take care if Rezillian." With that, Jay vanished into a fog blanket and passed by the golem unnoticed.  
  
This was my moment to shine; I drew my blades from the inside of my coat and charged at the golem, the torch light gleaming off the metal of my blades. The golem heard me coming his cold hallow eyes met mine; the rocky hand moved quickly and drew out an empty hilt from its side. As it tightened its grip on the hilt a blade of pure dark magic came shooting out, waiving in the air the power of the darkness reached me in an instant, and I stopped in mid stride, fear began to overcome me. I quickly sheathed my swords and cast a spell to create a sword of pure light, I knew it was not going to stop his blade for long but it was the best that I could do. We charged one another at full speed our feet echoed throughout the hall, I began to release a battle cry, my voice left me, "for my people!"  
  
Our swords met in burst of fury, light and darkness intertwined a fury of indescribable noise rang out for all to hear, my arms shook violently as he tried to push my blade and me away. I allowed my body to fall back, my knees bent then I quickly locked them, jarred forward, and pushed with all my strength against his blade. I managed to use my leverage to throw the bastard away from myself, and he flew a good distance until he hit a pillar, cracking it. He stood up, his expressionless face did not change and his eyes, his eyes were as hallow and empty as the other golems heads had been. It charged at me again, this time it continued to swing, I matched its pace swing for swing, and when one of us was unable to block the other we managed to dodge the others blade. That lasted for about twenty minutes, until my blade faded, returned to the magics that created it, and I felt the cold dark blade of the golem cut into my stomach. Pain shot through me, I could feel the blood escaping me, I fell to my knees and doubled over, and my innards fell to the floor escaping me. I breathed heavy, and then the world went black a flash of light appeared in the darkness.  
  
My eyes opened to see the golem opening the door at the far end of the hallway, its movements were slow and unsteady, as though something had wounded it. I tried to stand but found that I was in excruciating pain, I looked down to find that my intestines lay on the floor next to me surrounded by a pool of my blood, I had not died merely passed out from pain. I reached into my coat, pulled out one of the blades, and then quickly cut what parts of my intestines were hanging out. I became dizzy from the pain but fought to remain conscious, I quickly cast a regeneration spell on my self. I could hear the large doors open, I needed to hurry, my wound sealed, but that didn't stop the pain. As I stood up, I realized that the spell had no effect on the fact that I cut my insides out, I would not last long but I would have to try to give Jay a bit more time.  
  
I looked forward and saw the golem walking into the brightly lit throne room I had to distract it, I threw a fireball into the center of the corridor just a little behind myself, the explosion ripped through the corridor, fire erupted lighting the whole area ablaze. I was sent flying by the explosion as were the golem, Jay and Rezillian. Both the golem and I went crashing through a window in the throne room. Glass pierced my flesh and the plummet to the ground began, I could see the ground gaining quickly on me, then just before I hit the world went black for the second time.  
  
I have no idea how long I had been but my eyes finally opened to be greeted by the sight of the ground. I stood up, every bone in my body ached, and I found myself to be rather stiff. I examined the ground where I had fallen and noticed that it was drenched in blood, which was still wet; I guessed that I had not been out for too long. I looked up into the sky, it glowed red, the stars appeared as embers on a burning log, I examined the tower of the castle and fount the window from whence the golem and I fell from. Then I returned my attention to the ground and instantly realized that the golem already went back into the castle, I cast a flying spell upon myself and made my way back to the tower. Lights flashed from the window explosions echoed into the night, the vampires were waging war upon one another; magics were being thrown between the two.  
  
I flew through the broken window, my feet lightly touched the floor neither Jay nor Rezillian noticed me enter the room. They were locked in combat, balls of energy hit the walls erupting as they struck, fire, lightning, dark and light energies exploded, the walls of the throne room were singed from the explosions. Rezillian appeared to be the worse for wear of the two; his clothes torn were, blood ran down his face even though the cut had already healed. Rezillian's silver hair was red and soaked with his blood, and he was starting looking tired. I heard a loud thudding sound approaching; it would seem Dawnslo was moving incredibly slowly towards us. I quickly moved to the door past Jay and Rezillian; I stood in the doorway blocking it.  
  
The thundering footsteps drew slowly closer, echoing through the darkened hall, all the torches lay fallen on the floor. Suddenly I heard a fluttering coming from behind me; it drew closer as another set of explosions echoed from the glorious vampiric battle. I turned to se a pair of falcons flying towards me, a strange light began to emanate from around them. They landed on the floor before my feet, and suddenly their shapes, I found myself looking at Sheris and Elrohinile.  
  
"Zamieon, go help Jay, now!" Elrohinile shouted at me, she seemed worried that our plan seemed to be failing.  
  
"But the gole-"  
  
"Never mind that, Sheris will break the spell on his mind, you and Jay have to capture and question Rezillian."  
  
I quickly turned my back to the girls and charged at Rezillian, I reached into my coat and drew my blades, I found that I was moving faster than normal, adrenaline flowed through me, propelling me at speeds that were not matched by even that of a vampire. This was the power of the hunter; I could feel my blades become lighter in my hands as I closed the gap between Rezillian and me. My blades flashed in the light, I cut through Rezillian easily, and my blades moved with unmatched speed, cut after cut, the vampires' blood began to spill over the ground. The cuts were shallow but I was making many of them, Rezillian screamed in pain, he fell to his knees, the blood flowed from his wounds, they were healing quickly however not quickly enough. For every one that healed I made two more, Jay's hands quickly grabbed me and through me aside, my body hit the sidewall hard, knocking the wind out of me.  
  
Jay placed his hands over Rezillian's and cast a binding spell on him, it would both hold him in place but make it impossible to cast spells. "Dammit Zamieon, you very nearly killed the bastard, I know that you are not used to holding back on my kind but for the love of the gods you have to learn. Though I must admit," Jay began to laugh, "it was awfully effective." Rezillian's head bobbed back and forth, as he began to slip in and out of consciousness. "I'll take him to the dungeon for later questioning; you go and make sure that the girls aren't having any trouble."  
  
I turned my attention to the girls and noticed that the golem and Sheris were hugging one another, I walked over to Elrohinile, "I take it she broke the curse."  
  
"Not quite, she broke the control that Rezillian had placed on Dawnslo, if it wasn't for her we'd have to kill him."  
  
"Guess this worked out better then huh?"  
  
Jay placed his hand onto my shoulder, "for us yes, it was better, killing that thing would have been difficult."  
  
"What do you mean 'for us' Jay?" I asked, I had already guessed at the answer but I prayed I was wrong.  
  
"Well this isn't a spell or curse, but it was a magical combination of creatures; so, unlike a spell it cannot be broken."  
  
"So he is stuck like this forever?"  
  
"Yes, and unfortunately he will live almost forever."  
  
"Almost?"  
  
"He will die, but it will take something like five thousand years." With that, Jay walked down the hall dragging an unconscious Rezillian behind him. I began to feel extremely tired the world around me turned black for the third time that night and I fell hard to the floor.  
  
When I awoke, the sun was shinning above, I could barley move, my body ached all over, and I turned my head and examined the area around me. I was lying under a tree in the courtyard of the castle; Elrohinile was sitting with Dawnslo and Sheris. I groaned unintentionally as I tried to stand up, it seemed that they had heard me because they all rushed over to help me stand up. The first to arrive at me was Dawnslo, I could tell by the rough, stone like feel of his surprisingly warm hands gripping just under my arms and effortlessly lifting me to my feet. I turned to face him, life had returned to his eyes, there was warmth and compassion in his face, and I found it amazing that a golem could look so human.  
  
"I- I am sorry for whatever pain I may have caused you last night." Dawnslo's voice was shaky, he seemed incredibly nervous, as though he were worried about me trying to hurt him. "I promise you that I had-"  
  
"Don't worry about it friend, you were not in control of yourself, and besides, its not like you could have killed me." I pushed myself away from Dawnslo and fought to keep my balance, I chuckled lightly, "I am after all immortal."  
  
"Are you alright Zamieon?" Elrohinile asked as she placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, I turned and smiled at her.  
  
"It takes a little more than dying to hurt me. Where'd Jay take Rezillian, I want to end this now, I want to know what comes next."  
  
Dawnslo looked at me, "they are in the dungeon, now with all the people freed Jay took run of it to question Rezillian. I'll take you to them can you fallow me or do you need a little help getting there."  
  
"If I fall, then I may actually ask for help but for now I may be able to follow you." Dawnslo turned and head towards the castle, slowly enough for me to hobble behind. We walked through the large doors, my body still ached, and it is all I can do to stay standing. He led me down a long corridor the area started to grow darker as we moved deeper inside the corridor, I found myself looking down a large spiral staircase, leading further down. "Dawnslo, I don't actually think I can make it down these; can you give me a hand?"  
  
Dawnslo smiled, "of course." He easily scooped me over his shoulder and began to run down the stairs. I have to admit that the ride down hurt like hell, solid steel and rock drove into my already pained stomach with every bounce. When we arrived at the bottom Dawnslo set me down, "follow the hall to the left, you'll find Jay in the torture chamber." Dawnslo turned and began to climb the stairs slowly.  
  
"Thank you Dawnslo, and for what its worth I am sorry for what happened to you."  
  
He stopped in mid-step, "that is neither here nor there, I will learn to live with my curse as you will with yours."  
  
I chuckled, "guess your right, this coming back from being dead is painful, remind me when next we meet to not do it too often." Both Dawnslo and I walked apart, the hall was long to the torture chamber. A large metal door stood shut, I pushed it open and found Rezillian tied to a rack, his arms and legs stretched out, Jay sat in a chair grinning wildly.  
  
"Knew you'd show, I was hopping if your not too busy that is, if you wouldn't mind finishing this, he doesn't seem to want to talk to me."  
  
Rezillian stirred and looked at me, "you think that this child will be able to get me to talk when you couldn't." His voice sounded weak and hallow, he was still in a lot of pain, I figured that it would be too difficult to crack him.  
  
"Rezillian, you underestimate me, now you and me we can do this one of two ways. One, you could tell me what we want to know and I kill you, or two I torture it out of you and then kill you, pretty simple huh?"  
  
"What could you possibly do to harm me human?"  
  
"Well this for starters," I tore his shirt off and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Its funny this spell is called cleansing hands now usually it cures diseases, or plagues sometimes even poisons. But for some reason on your kind it has a rather painful effect, it will cause your, oh wait, why should I let the secret out I'll show you." My hands began to glow a pale blue, Rezillian started to scream in agony, I took my hands away. His flesh began to blister and bubble, the bubbles grew, white and filled with puss. Then the multitude of bubbles burst, spilling the stench, blood and puss all over him. His screams were high and inhuman, as I examined his wounds; I noticed that they ran rather deep; I cast a spell to stop his natural healing. I also cast a spell to stop the bleeding but still kept his flesh red and tender. "Now than what do you say, do want to talk or not?"  
  
"Alright, I'll talk, you want to know about the master, I'll tell you all I can."  
  
"Make whatever you have fast, or I start with the magics again"  
  
"Alright, I don't know what plane he is on now, but in one thousand years he will return here, by then there will be nothing worth feeding off here, we'll destroy the planet then."  
  
"That's all you have?" Jay spoke, mocking Rezillian's answer, "you truly are useless, but I guess that's all I needed to know." Jay drew his sword, a magnificent katana, the hilt marvelously carved ivory, then with a quick slice he decapitated Rezillian.  
  
"Dammit Jay, I wanted to torture him to death."  
  
"Sorry, but you should save it, there are a lot of vampires around, there is plenty of time for fun." Jay cleaned his sword on Rezillian's pants then sheathed it. "Zamieon, you and Elrohinile should start hunting vampires in the area, if you want information there is a clan of druids in the forests to the north." Jay then left the room, he moved quickly, his cloak flowed elegantly behind him.  
  
"Well I'll see you later then?"  
  
Jay turned smiling, "in about five hundred years, kill as many vampires before then as possible, after that we train for five hundred years." With that, Jay did his transforming act into mist and was gone.  
  
I quickly ran out of the room, up the stairs and it was odd but all the pain in my body was gone. When I arrived at the surface Sheris and Elrohinile were standing and talking I did not see Dawnslo anywhere around. I walked over to them and interrupted their conversation, "Elrohinile, I need to go. I'm heading out to see the druids to the north; you should stay here and help these people get settled back in."  
  
"I think that we can handle our selves, thank you though for thinking of us. The two of you should travel together, you'll need help, and the druids don't care for outsiders much." Sheris said, the light reflecting in her eyes, she seemed incredibly happy and optimistic.  
  
"Well alright, then Elrohinile I guess that we should start moving."  
  
"Are you sure that you are well enough my love, you did die last night."  
  
"I'll be fine, but we will be going, Sheris give my best to Dawnslo, I hope that you all can be happy here again." With that, I turned and left, I did not have the patience for long goodbyes. Elrohinile on the other hand stayed behind to say her goodbyes to both Sheris and Dawnslo, I am sure that she would catch up with me later. I took off and made my way to the forest in an attempt to find the druids. 


	7. Firefly

_**Chapter V: Firefly**_  
  
It was nearly a day's walk to the forest; I was beginning to feel a little nervous about this idea. Druids are incredibly powerful people, able to control the elements, to talk and command the creatures of the wild, not to mention the fact that they have a deeper respect for nature than even we hunters had. I had been running for about four hours now and Elrohinile had yet to catch up, but that was still far on my list of worries, she is as capable as I am of taking care of herself. I move as quickly as I could, but something was amiss, it was the smell, even for a forest, the smell was far too clean. I stopped in my tracks and decided to cast a spell of creature detection, I did not want any surprises from anywhere. The spell was a dumb move; there were far too many creatures in the woods for me to concentrate on. I could feel every animal, every creature moving around within a one hundred foot radius of myself, I tried to filter the spell by filtering out any non-humanoid creatures but normally druids are not alone in the forest.  
  
I cast dispel upon myself to clear my head, I decided that it might be wiser to just keep my guard up. I walked into the forest and then something dawned on me, the sheer size of this forest was going to make finding these druids incredibly difficult and possibly dangerous. I continued to walk deeper into the forest; the trees were tall, old; their age showed on their bark, scars where fire and axes alike had failed to destroy them. It was clear that the druids were very active in this area, axes and saws lie rusting on the ground, some barley visible due to the overgrowth.  
  
As I moved further in the forest, seem to become denser even in the dark I could see fog rolling down from the roof of the trees the smell of nature filled my lungs. Insects flew around me, lights following behind them, the moisture from the mist was being captured and hung in spider webs that seemed to cover the entire forest, no not seemed to they did. I froze, motionless, I watched as the light from the fireflies bounced off the captured moisture illuminating the forest around where I stood. I spun around to try to see if anyone was around but I could not spot a likely target, but I knew that this was the work of a talented druid.  
  
"Love what you've done with place; it seems to have a real back to nature look to it." I was hoping that doing this would get some form of reaction from said druid but no such luck, so I gave it a second try, "look I need to talk to your people about vampires."  
  
A voice came echoing from all around me, "then I am not the person you want to speak with, I am an outcast." Suddenly I saw light come fluttering towards me, it was a firefly, and the voice came once more from it. "I apologize for sending my servants to greet you traveler but you must understand that a druid outcast is hunted by many including his former clan. Please tell me something who are you, and what do you know of the vampires?"

"My name is Zamieon, and I am a hunter."  
  
The firefly's light seemed to explode before me and it transformed into a man dressed in the skins of the beasts. "I heard word that all your kind were dead, how is it that you can claim to be a hunter?"  
  
"I am the last of my kind, the last trained hunter, and why am I wasting my time on you? If you truly are an outcast than why are you still here?"  
  
"I stayed to protect these forests from the corruption that my brethren will betray them too. If it is help you seek you will not find it with the druids that lay within the forest, they have sold their servitude to the vampires."  
  
"What? Why would the druids do that?"  
  
"The vampires promised to leave the forests and all its inhabitants in peace, free from their wrath."  
  
"They bought it?"  
  
"For the most part there are a few who think otherwise and wanted to oppose the vampires. They were taught by my example, those who oppose the decision of the council of the fey."  
  
Expulsion from the clan, for a druid there is no worse punishment."  
  
"That and they will not aid me in anyway, I am dead to them."  
  
"Well that's of no concern to me, if they are helping the vampires than they are my enemies."  
  
"What, you can't be serious?"  
  
"I am, if I cannot convince them to aid me than I will destroy them all. If there is any help that you could give me I would accept it."  
  
The Druid seemed to think over what I had told him, he replied quietly, "there is little that I can do to help you convince them, however if it comes to fighting the vampires, then I will aid you." He held out his hand and a small swarm of fireflies surrounded his out stretched hand, "these are my kindred spirits, they will keep me connected to you." They dispersed as he spoke; seeming to understand the druid's words they flew into the trees, save for one, which landed on my shoulder. "Let their light also go guide you to the other druids, I must ask you though to spare them, tell them who you are, and show proof they should fear you more than they fear the vampires."  
  
"Who is it that I should seek out when I arrive?"

"The chieftain of the tribe, Fjoushtkal-Stonemoulder, he will more than likely be in the tallest spire of the tree community, try to sneak up there it would be easier to speak to him alone."

"Thank you for your aid- uhm; sorry what was your name?"

"I am simply known as the Firefly by my former brothers, my real name has long been lost to be."

"Well thank you, hopefully I will be able to convince them to follow me rather than the vampires, I don't want to have to wipe out an entire colony of Druids." I turned and began to walk; suddenly the firefly on my shoulder flew in front of me buzzing in my face. Then it flew towards the northeast end of the forest and waited for me to follow. When I turned to say my final farewell to Firefly he was already gone, I shrugged it off and followed the firefly's trail of light.

I followed the firefly for about ten kilometers, until I came to a large grove of Wailing Willows, the tallest trees known to exist; the trees had many homes of moss and vines. Unsurprisingly the grove was protected by some fifty treants, along with hawks and wolves, sneak in was going to be difficult. I decided that it would be easiest to fly up to the highest tree, so I cast both a flying and invisibility spell upon my self to sneak up to the top. As I progressed higher I looked down, the wolves sniffed the air, growling loudly their heads facing the sky, searching for where the smell was actually coming from.

When I arrived at the tallest spire I peered in between the vines and moss, a candle dimly lit the room, to figures stood talking with one another. The first was a slender male elf, his golden hair shone in the soft light; he was dressed in animal hides as most druids did. The second I quickly recognized though I was unsure why she was there, it was Elrohinile and it seemed by their conversation that they knew one another.

"When did he die?" The male elf asked her.

"It's been nearly five years, since the vampires finished off the last of the hunters camps."

"I am terribly sorry for your loss child, so tell me more of this Malanchite, is he like his father?"  
  
"Very much so, strong, honorable and holds nearly as much hatred towards the vampires as his father did."  
  
"That is all fine and good but what does he have that makes him able to stand against the vampires by himself, why should we fly his banner into battle instead of the vampires?"  
  
"He, unlike them is incapable of dying, a true immortal, and chosen by Orlaendric himself."  
  
"That's fine, but of what good does that do to us, can he protect us from the vampires, will be able to protect our forests?"  
  
"I'm not giving you a choice Fjoushtkal-Stonemoulder; Orlaendric has given me the order to make this simple for you, either you take Zamieon's side or he and I will kill each and every one of you." Her voice came out angry, nearly shouting at the elven male.  
  
"How dare you threaten me, what makes you think that you can do anything to us, the hunter maybe immortal but you will die." He said as he drew his sword and pointed it at her. I tried to move but something inside me told me not to, my instincts told me to wait a little longer.  
  
"Try whatever you want, I'm already dead, that sword will do little to hurt me, I won't even bleed."  
  
"You're immortal as well?" He said shocked lowering his sword, my mouth fell open, and my thoughts followed the elves, it seemed impossible.  
  
"You're not listening to me, I am dead, have been for more than four years, and beyond that I am a Valkyr of Odin."  
  
I jumped through the top of the hut, vines and moss fell to the large branch flooring. "So you just chose not to tell me about your being dead Elrohinile?" I was angry my tone made that extremely clear.  
  
Elrohinile seemed completely surprised by my showing up, "Zamieon, how did you get here?"  
  
"Why did you do this, why the hell did you lie to me?"  
  
"I never-"  
  
"You made me believe that you loved me, that you actually cared why would you do that to me? Have you any idea what this is like for me?"  
  
"I had to have you believe that I loved you so that you would have something to hold onto, a reason to continue fighting to keep living."  
  
"Kind of don't have a choice on the living part, and if I want to die I have to kill all the vampires. I have all the reason to fight them; I have hatred and vengeance to drive me to kill them. What ever you were doing here it was unnecessary." I turned around and grabbed the druid throwing him against the wall. "As for you Fjoushtkal I am only going to give you one chance at this, where are the vampires?"  
  
"Zamieon take it-"  
  
"Leave here; I have no use for the dead!" I shouted cutting Elrohinile off in mid sentence. "If you have nothing else to offer me here than get the hell out!"  
  
"But Zam-"  
  
"GET THE HELL OUT!" I shouted turning my face to hers, I could feel the lines of rage running across my face, and Elrohinile was starring at me, her face white with fear. I threw the druid to the floor, he landed hard on the ground, his air escaped him as he hit, and I drew my blade and walked towards Elrohinile. "Why, why the hell did you do this?"  
  
"I already answered that, to give your mission purpose."  
  
I was now standing directly in front of her my blades edge pressed against her throat, "not that, why did you come back from the dead?"  
  
"I wanted to help you for eternity."  
  
"Than why not do what I did, Odin would have done this for you as well."  
  
"He gave me the choice, I chose to die than live forever, plus it gave me more power to use as I would."  
  
"Leave me Elrohinile, I ask this of you as a friend, if you don't I will go back to Karod'Zileah and get Dawnslo's sword to kill you with."  
  
"But Zamieon, why?"  
  
"Because I love you Elrohinile, knowing that you are dead, do you have any idea what seeing you everyday till the vampires die would do to me? What kind of pain that would put me through? Please leave me; this is for me to do myself." I could feel the tears running down my face; the anger had turned to pain and sorrow. I sheathed my sword as I leaned closer to Elrohinile and kissed her on the cheek, "goodbye, I hope to see you when I can die."  
  
"I'm sorry Zamieon; I had no intention of hurting you like this, though Odin warned me that this may happen." She turned and walked towards the door of the hut, she opened the door, and before she left, she turned to me, "I do love you Zamieon." Suddenly there was a burst of pure white light, nearly blinding me, Elrohinile was now in her Valkyr form, and she wore a golden breastplate and held a long spear in her right hand. "Farewell, I hope to see you again," with that, she disappeared into the night.  
  
I turned my attention back to the druid on the floor, "so where are the vampires?"  
  
"I-I don't know none of us do, they just gave us protection in exchange for our services. There is nothing that I can tell you of use."  
  
"Let me make something very clear to you, anyone who would ally themselves with my enemies then becomes them, now do you want that?"  
  
"Look, I will do what is in the best interest of my people and this forest, if it means allying my people and our services to the will of the vampires than so be it."  
  
I looked down at him as he still lay on the floor, "you truly are a fool aren't you? Do you actually think that the vampires will leave you and this forest in peace simply because they said they would? Allow me let you in on a little something, in a thousand years the original vampire will return here and destroy all that exists on this world. In case it didn't register with you that includes your people and this forest."  
  
His eyes grew wider, in fear, "how did you come to know this?"  
  
"I tortured it out of one of their kind, mind you that it is not the vampires should fear, but me. I am the only one that can change the way things are for you and your people."  
  
"I can't, though I wish I could, the vampires have operatives working within our ranks. I have been trying to find out who they are but it seems that we have no idea who they could be." He stared at the floor seeming somewhat embarrassed, "normally I would have no dealings with an outsider but since I do fear you more than I fear the vampires I will ask for your help. If you can find the vampires, and kill them then our services will be given to you." I chuckled, it was easier to do than he realized. "What is so funny Malanchite?"  
  
"Well for starters, what Elrohinile doesn't know is that vampires can easily change forms, especially if they are newly turned. Another thing is that we hunters have a little spell to test whether or not a creature is a vampire." I cast a spell similar to cleansing hands called cleansing spirit; the blue light flowed from my hand to the face of Fjoushtkal.  
  
"AHHHH!" He screamed in agony grabbing at his face, his body convulsed as he turned over to lean upon his knees. I could see the blood running off his face. "You bustardous hunter, you will pay for that!"  
  
"I think not Vampire scum," I drew my sword and sliced the head from the vampires body, the blood flowed freely onto the ground, even though it was cut off the boils and blisters on the face continued to grow and burst. Then I heard a loud rumbling coming from below me, I then realized just how much trouble I was in. I ran to the door of the hut and looked down onto the surrounding area, to find a large army of vampires. What was worse was that all these vampires were once druids, I would be fighting them within their element and now I did not have the advantage of surprise. "Come and get me you lifeless sons-o-bitches!" They began to take animal form; falcons, eagles, bats; some even powerful enough to transform into magical creatures. I could make out an owlbear, several gryphons, two angmour and even a wyvern flying at high speeds. I leapt into the air off the tree branch; I outstretched my arms and began to chant the secret spell of my people. "In the name of Vilondri, I call forth the power of those who have fallen before, may their strength and desire for revenge bring me the power to smite my enemies. Light of the heaven burn away the cursed ones that lay before me, burn away their flesh and bones, may their souls forever wander in darkness!" A beam of pure light ripped through the night sky and passed into me, the memories of my ancestors coursed through my mind, pain shot throughout me, but it would be worth it. A moment later the beam left causing a cone of light to come coursing from my hands, it struck the ground engulfing nearly one hundred feet of the forest below in light, as it struck the ground it send an enormous cloud of dust into the sky. The Screams of numerous vampires came ringing through the night. I could see some of them being affected by the spell, their bodies latterly bursting into flames; the smell of burning flesh, fur and feathers filled the night air. The spell lasted only a few seconds and when it was over, I could see charred corpses falling to the ground.  
  
However there were still many more vampires alive than dead, and they were all coming for me, I quickly cast a spells of agility, speed and strength on myself followed by a flying spell and not a moment to soon for I nearly hit the ground. I turned to see the vampires had surrounded me, and then a small number of them began to cast a spell that I was unfamiliar with, when they finished the vegetation around me quickly leapt out at me, entangling me within it.  
  
"We have him."  
  
"Kill the hunter!"  
  
"Our enemy will now be crushed beneath us!" Their voices echoed through the forest, their bloodlust rang through their voices.  
  
I began to panic, there were too many of them for me to handle alone, not to mention the fact that I was unable to move. The vines tightened around me beginning to cut off my air, and the vampires were closing in on me. I struggled to free myself but it was proving useless and I could feel the earth below me rumbling with the footsteps of my enemies, I could think of only one way to escape this situation but it was going to be excruciatingly painful. However, as they closed in on me, I realized that I had no choice; I closed my eyes and focused my mind to become intertwined with the spirits of flame. I could feel my skin burning, raw heat began to flow in and out of me, and I opened my eyes to find the first group of vampires beginning to raise their weapons to attack me. "INFERNEISQUE!" A pillar of flame twenty feet high engulfed me and quickly spread to cover an area of over a hundred feet in diameter.  
  
It seamed that the amulet that Elrohinile gave me was working, the flames that surrounded me did not so much as singe my clothes, however the heat was causing my skin to peel however it was only a little more painful than a sunburn. Luckily, for me, the spell had accomplished what I had hoped that it would, the vines had completely burned away along with a large number of the vampires. Then as quickly as the pillar appeared and waved out it drew all the flame back and whiffed itself out. Small fires burned throughout the forest, if they were not dealt with soon, they would burn the whole forest, but I had little time to worry about the forest for more vampires still lived and were starting their charge on me.  
  
I quickly ran in the opposite direction, as I ran I heard the rumbling of thunder. I looked up to see thick dark clouds overtake the night sky, flashes of brilliant white light erupted throughout the clouds, and without warning one of the worst downpours I have ever been in was beating down upon me. I glanced over my shoulder and noticed that the storm had put out most of the fires that were burning and the rest would probably smother themselves out, with that, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started only moments ago.  
  
"Want a hand?" A friendly and very welcomed voice called out to me.  
  
"Any time Firefly," I replied breathing heavily as I continued to run.  
  
"Thought you'd never ask," as he finished speaking a large swarm of flying insects rose from the ground and off the trees, they flew together and formed a very thick, very high wall. It was a thick wall that hummed loudly with the fluttering of wings; but something told me that, this was only the beginning. Then from somewhere high in the trees that same bright light came sailing gently down and as it landed it took the familiar shape of the male druid. He turned and smiled at me, "Don't think that little wall will hold them back do you?" He raised his hands and the ground began to shake, the earth began to spout out all sorts of different insects. The ground seemed to come to life; I began to notice larger ones coming out of the ground. A very large group of arachnids began to come crawling out of the ground the first three were massive, about ten feel tall and six feet wide. They were followed by about twelve sword spiders and thirty adult acid- spitters. "This is why the druids are feared my friend, not for our control of the weather or our understanding of the elements, but our power over the creatures of the wild. Though I do not understand why it is the vampires are unable to control them thus."  
  
"That's not surprising," I said, beginning to relax a bit.  
  
"Oh, and just why does that not surprise you?" Firefly asked raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Animals can feel their evil energy better than mortals, unlike your kind to whom they have grown to trust the animals both loath and fear the vampires. The can feel an evil that would over shadow that of a Drow community, no respect for nature, that is the problem with vampires."  
  
"Well whatever the problem is it won't matter soon," his arm raised and pointed to the wall of insects, red light shone from the other side, the vampires were burning their way through. "I think we should fall back to the forest, try to lose them, maybe our best chance of survival." I thought for a moment then decided against it, I drew both my scimitars out and widened my stance. "What are you doing we have to get out of here, they'll kill you if you stay."  
  
"You mean they can try to, remember I'm immortal I can't die." I smiled the clouds above parted and the moon shone through reflecting its bright light off the drops of rain that clung to me. "I will not allow these creatures to poison these forests; their kind took almost everything from me, I plan on taking my vengeance out on all their kind. I am going to make this a preliminary run." The sad part is the few things that these creatures did not take from me the gods took away or I allowed them to take away, in either respect I had lost everything. I really had no reason to live or fight, other than revenge; I was going to have to let that be enough for even if I wanted to I would not be able to die.  
  
I cast a few more burst speed spells on myself; the world around me seemed to slow down, I was beginning to better understand the spell, it did not speed you up or slow things around you down. Instead, it pulled you away from this reality, and created a pocket dimension around you, one that was just a few fractions out of synchronization with this plane. I could see insects, every flutter of their wings, and every drop of rain that fell from tree branches seemed to pass by at an inch a minute. I could see the Firefly begin to turn away, his voice speaking too slowly for me to understand.  
  
I turned and charged through the wall of insects, they had a delayed reaction to my passing by, to them I would have appeared as more of a blur than a man, they scattered behind me those that I touched with my body seemed to be sent flying in all directions, like I had hit them hard with a stick. As I came out the other side of the swarm I was met with a fireball, actually a series of them, the red light was near blinding, but I moved quicker that the heat or force of the fireballs. I past through the flame, trails of it followed me, dancing at my heals, then I saw them, vampires about twenty in total. My blades glowed crimson with the light of the fire, I smiled and let out a hell worthy battle cry. My blades found their first victim a female vampire, about my height, my blades sliced clean through her abdomen, I had made a "V" shaped cut just under her breasts, the blood sprayed out slowly, I could have stayed to watch the fountain of it flow if I truly wanted to.  
  
I continued to hack my way through the creatures until only one remained standing, the ground around us was slowly being covered with blood, I could spin around and see each vampire still dying slowly from my attacks. The first one had nearly hit the ground, her intestines spilled onto the forest floor, a look of pure agony washed over her face. The other bodies were still sending fountains of blood into the air, painting the trees and ground deep red, horrified eyes stared in all directions, the creatures never had a chance against me. I walked over to the last one remaining, I released my blades they fell to near my hips at normal speed, once they reached that point they seemed to stop, but they didn't stop, they merely left my pocket dimension and entered the normal world. I began to beat the last vampire, every time my fist collided with part of his body that part past into my pocket and moved just as fast as I move.  
  
I decided that this was getting old after a short time, I had hit him enough for it to become boring, I cast dispel on myself and wound up reentering normal space and time, it was a disorienting experience to change dimensions that quickly. The vampire I had been beating on screamed in pain and fell hard to the ground spitting up blood; repeating that I had broken his bones. I picked up my scimitars, holding both hilts in one hand I used my free hand to pick up the vampire and throw him into one of the trees, he moaned briefly. Then I heard his bones snapping back into place, his body's regeneration was working, he drew an arm back with which to strike at me, but before he could finish I drove my scimitars through him and into the tree. Blood gushed out from the two wounds between his ribs; he screamed again, I grabbed his face with my hands squeezing his skull tight. "Tell me where your master will appear in one thousand years," I screamed at him, anger ringing through the forest.  
  
"Never hunter," the vampire replied cockily, his silver hair falling over his face covering my hands.  
  
"Fine, we shall do this my way, CLEANSING HANDS!" The vampire screamed and wailed in pain, his legs flailing wildly, it would do him no good. "Tell me and I make this stop, were will he come?"  
  
"F-Fuck You!"  
  
I squeezed harder, I could feel his skins blisters bursting, puss and blood covered my hands, and I could feel its warmth over them and the sickening smell that came with it. "How about now? No? Fine maybe a little more," I released his face, the wetness left strands of the blood/puss mixture attached to both his face and my hands. I ripped off the furs that he wore as a shirt and gripped his armpits; I cast cleansing hands again with much the same result from the vampire. However, this time I continued casting it, muscle and sinew began to fall from his arms, unimaginable screams of pain echoed through the forest. "Tell me, and I will kill you quickly!"  
  
"All right, I'll talk", he screamed. "The master will come to the Drow kingdom Kel-tholas."  
  
"Thanks, that's all I needed to know," I said smiling, Grabbing both the vampires arms I put one of my feet to his chest and pulled, he screamed in pain; I continued to pull until his arms came ripping out of place.  
  
"You said you'd kill me," the vampire cried in pain and discussed.  
  
"I have every intention of doing so; I just plan on doing it slowly." I grasped the vampire's throat, I cast cleansing hands once more, and this time so that the neck was not strong enough, then I pulled his head off. Blood covered both the tree and myself; I put my boot on the chest of the corpse and pulled hard to get my blades out, the vampires skin had already healed around them. "Well Fjoushtkal its safe for you to come out now!" I called out loudly.  
  
"So you figured out it was me then?" Came the reply of a very surprised Firefly.  
  
"Come now, the legend of the greatest leader among the druids, the man who could summon insects to fight wars, and have them win. It was easy to guess that it was you. Not to mention the fact that you have the tattoo of a druid chieftain on the underside of your jaw."  
  
"Well since you obviously made up that thing about the legend I will just assume that you hunters have a lot of druids in your ranks."  
  
"Had, remember I am the last."  
  
"Right forgive me, I had forgotten, but if it is any consolation; for what you have done for my people I thank you and will say that from this day forward should you Zamieon Malanchite ever need aid in battle then me and my kin will aid you."  
  
"Thank you Fjoushtkal, have your people ready in a thousand years, I will send a summon out to your people to aid me in the final battle for this world."  
  
"We will fight by your side with honor." He bowed and disappeared again, turning into a firefly as usual.  
  
I looked around me, then I turned my attention to the sky, found the North Star and gained my bearings, I decided to continue west, I would train with the monks of Hirogroul, the most renowned school for the body, mind and soul. I began to walk alone through the night, screams echoed in my mind, the screams of the battle five years ago, and the screams of the vampire I had just killed. After about three hours of walking I felt fatigue coming over me, I stopped walking and chose to sleep on the spot. My dreams that night were nightmares, filled with death and horrors, my mothers cold lifeless face was the last thing I saw, blood soaked her hair the scream of pain forever etched upon her face.


	8. Waking The Dead

_** Chapter VI: Waking The Dead  
**_  
I walked through forests, through storms and sunlight for nearly two years. I traveled in search of Hirogroul. All that I knew of it was that it lay in a mountainous area past the Sea of Tears, on the continent of Kralarsiou. Along the way, I ran into a few small parties of vampires, not to mention a small assortment of various other creatures. I left a trail of blood and death in my wake; I became the angel of death dealing to all those that stood in my path. The nightmare that I had been having began getting worse, the stress of living was becoming nearly intolerable. My mind began to wander as the journey continued, I began to loath all existence, the lives of others became meaningless to me, I no longer knew who the real "bad guys" were any more, perhaps it was I. I avoided civilization as much as possible; I found that isolation was the best way of ensuring that I did not go over the proverbial deep end.  
It was mid way through my third year of searching that I found the first traces of the Hirogroul monks. Dusk had past and now the moon shone brightly in the clear night sky, no clouds blocked its view of our world. It was a large grouping of homes built within the mountains, amazing carvings marked the exteriors of the buildings. They ranged from ancient runes of protection to fantastic murals of battles; ancient wars that most would have forgotten were here on the walls to this building. I stood in awe and silence surrounded on all sides by hills, the valley that I stood in was a natural marvel the likes of which I had never before seen. The ground was soft, green with lush vegetation and flowers of all colours. The windows and doors of the community homes had ivies entangling them, amazingly up-kept and trimmed to perfection. Small trees surrounded the fronds of most homes usually two, one on each side of a door, the trees though small seemed ancient and loved.  
I could hear the rustling of grass and leaves around me, I was being surrounded, shadows moved in the night, quickly, unseen and nearly silent. I left my guard down; I had heard of theses monks, peaceful and benevolent, though very untrusting of the motives of outsiders. They were also strong and dangerous, their speed and strength made them formidable opponents, and they could land blows that would kill any normal man. There were at least twelve of them around me; they crept slowly towards me, still silent and somehow remaining completely out of my line of site.  
I raised my arms into the air and straitened my hands to show that they were empty, "I have weapons on me, though I have no intention of using them on you. I ask only for aid; for my spirit, my mind and my body." I spoke hoping that I had chosen the right words; the ones that would have them accept me.  
A voice answered me; it came from one of the buildings, "what is it that would trouble a man enough to seek us out?" I looked towards the direction that the voice came from; I saw a short thickset Dwarven male, an elderly dwarf of about seven hundred. He wore a dark brown robe and though he was bald, he had a long flowing white beard.  
"I find that death is haunting me in my sleep as well as when I walk, I have those that would make me their pray, and I must find solace for my soul, for long I have gone with no soul within me. I gave up death, cheated it indefinitely the gods have thus given me immortality."  
"Such strong things you say of yourself young human, would you mind if we tested your immortality?"  
"If you like you may, when you kill me though, give me time to come back, it may take a little while."  
"We'll give you a decent room to wake up in I assure you, this won't hurt a bit." He nodded and a group of ten men surrounded me, most held me tight so that I could not move much, the last thrust two fingers into my throat, I felt the wind leave my body and found myself unable to get any of it back. Blood began to flow from my mouth and soon my body became too heavy for my legs, the men let go of me and my legs crumpled beneath me, the world went black around me.  
I awoke in a small dimly lit room, the smell of burning wax filled the room, and silence was all around me. I could still taste blood in my mouth, it was amazing but even now, I felt no pain from what killed me, I was impressed with how easily one man could kill me. I tried to sit up but found myself strapped down to the bed, my jacket hung on a wall to my left, I struggled a little and then I heard footsteps approaching me. "Well at least the room is decent," I said jokingly.  
I heard the voice of the dwarf coming from just behind me, "just precautions you see," he paused for a few brief moments. "There are many who come here for many reasons and most are here for reasons that are far from respectable. I need to make sure you are not one of them."  
"How do you propose that we do that?"  
"You are doing very well so far, you came back to life as you said you would and beyond that," he said with a smirk, "you haven't really tried to escape. You seem to be more honorable than most that come here, I will let you up, if you choose to attack me that is your decision, but then it will prove your true motives."  
As he reached down to loosen the straps that bound me I asked quietly, "why would I attack you?" He finished uniting me without responding, he tossed the straps neatly into a corner. "Thank you for releasing me without hesitation, though I must ask again what purpose would my killing you serve?"  
"Well because many others have come here for that reason, I am after all the one they call Origmi Bloodfist; I am the head master here. Most come to kill me in hopes of disbanding the monks, none have succeeded though." He smiled as he spoke, he seemed a generally happy sort, "it is late though stranger and you should rest, and I will send one of my men to fetch you in the morning. Feel free though, if you be not tired that is, to look around out facilities, all know that you are here, no one will trouble you."  
He walked to the door to my small room and opened the door, "my name is Zamieon, and I must thank you for this tremendous opportunity." I bowed out of courtesy and Origmi bowed out of obligation in return, and then left the room, closing the door gently behind him. Silence was louder than I could have ever imagined, I lied sleepless in the small yet comfortable bed that the monks had given to me. I tossed and turned until near daybreak when finally my heavy eyelids closed.  
The nightmares returned, horribly vivid as ever, there I stood surrounded by bodies of slain friends and family, their heads displayed on pikes before me, haunting laughter filled the dark spaces in my mind where even the screams feared to go. Shadows moved quietly around, something darker, something far more evil than the vampires was coming for me, something that death itself would cringe in fear at. From the sides of my minds eye I could see just behind the creature's movement, it wailed with a cry that in the least could be described as inhuman. Then it struck out at me from the shadows, its eyes pierced through me, I was completely terrified of it, then I saw its face. It was my own, the sandy brownish hair, the piercing blue eyes, the scar everything was me.  
I awoke in a cold sweat; the sheets were already on the floor, and the sun halfway up the sky, birds sang off in the distance, the sounds of waking life echoed in the halls just beyond the door. I stumbled out of bed and gathered my pants and shirts, I put them on slowly leaving my jacket hanging on the hook on the wall while my breastplate lie on the floor next to the bed. I opened the door to the hall, the sun shone brightly in the main hall, my eyes squinted to adjust to the light; once in the main hall I made a disturbing discovery; the silence from last night had spread and infected the day. Not a single sound could be heard in the main hall, I could not seem to find anyone around the immediate area, and the hall was completely empty. I began to walk, away from the sun; its harsh light beat down on my back, the hall was long and winding, carving were etched into every inch of the hall. The cavern was an oval shape, the entire area was, and although it was cave, it was incredibly dry. I continued down the hall in silence, it stretched deeper and further down into the mountain, it slowly grew darker as I walked deeper.  
Torches lit the halls in the deeper areas so that it was nearly as bright as the upper levels; I found a group of spiraling stairs leading to an even lower section of the temple. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I found myself on a balcony of sorts staring down into a larger room filled with monks, most entranced in meditation the rest were training physically against one another.  
"So what do you think about our little home?" The voice of Origmi came calling from behind me, "it's not much but we call it home, now what is it that I can do for you?"  
"Help me, it is these nightmares I've been having, they are starting to make me loose grasp on myself."  
He smirked, "you are a hunter after all, you live a violent life style nightmare are bound to be a part of that." He replied in a mundane tone, as if he were not worried about it. "I can teach you meditation; it would aid you in managing, our more correctly controlling them."  
"I already know how to meditate it hasn't been helping, the nightmares have been breaking through my concentration, they are seeping into my meditation, poisoning it and my mind. I am beginning to see the images in my sleep, there is no line between reality or dreams; I need help or I fear I will plunge into darkness."  
"There is no help that can be offered that can help you, the only thing that will work for you is to face you demons within, confront your fears and make sure that they listen to you and not the other way around."  
"I was once able to enter a place, in which I could do such a thing, but it was intense, the complete lack of human interaction within my mind drove me more insane. I had been trapped there for a long enough period to grow to hate it. I was freed only by divine intervention; I can't take another risk like that."  
Origmi stared at me for a long moment taking in what I had just told him, "then all you can do is pray that the dreams stop, other wise you'll wind up being like those we keep in the ward for the insane." "Ward of the insane, what is that?" In my mind, I already knew that the name was more or less self-descriptive.  
"It's where we keep all those whose minds have fallen too far beneath the realm of reality too recover and return to us." His face grimaced as he spoke with some distaste towards the place; he seemed the type of person who has a particular disliking to loosing things. He lowered his head and stared towards the floor as though to signify that he had finished speaking.  
I looked around the area again, something was beginning to bother me about this place, it was something that although was not terrible was anything but normal. I shook the thought for a moment and turned my attention back to Origmi, "so how will this training practice work?"  
His head raised and his eyes locked with mine for a few moments, a huge grin was forming under that thick Dwarven beard of his. "It's like a form of meditation, though it only occurs while you are traveling the dream realm, it is completely controlled by your subconscious." He turned away form me and began to move towards the stares, he abruptly turned to me and waved his arm to motion to follow him.  
I did so, following down the stairs and past the meditating monks, one or two came briefly out to see who was walking past them then re- entered meditation. He led the way beyond those who were training in combat; beyond them, there was large doorway that led to a corridor that was actually dark. The corridor was not very long though all that I could see was something somewhat brighter. The room we entered from the corridor was large and dome-like in shape, with large pillars stone pillars encompassing the room, torches hung from metal holders imbedded into each pillar. In the center of the room, there was a great deal of pillows facing each other.  
Origmi gestured to one of the pillows, "take one; before we begin I need to teach you the art of mind-walking."  
"Like this?" I asked his mind, as I did his eyes grew wide in disbelief.  
His voice echoed inside my head, "well I guess there will be no need for this," then I actually heard a mental sigh come from him, I raised an eyebrow. "Then I do not know exactly were to begin, by now you should be able to control your dreams."  
My answer came still through mind-walking, "well there might be a problem in the fact that I do not do much dreaming to practice with."  
He burst out verbally, "what do you mean by that?"  
I smiled and continued talking in his mind, "I don't sleep often, I use magic to replace the need for sleep."  
He smiled nodding his head in understanding, "that makes a lot of sense; you actually need to sleep to get used to the dreams, how long have the dreams been happening."  
"About two years give or take, though it is a little more than I wanted to have, maybe I should just avoid sleep all together."  
"You my good hunter are the reason that the nightmares are so horrible and near unbearable. You are allowing the horrors your subconscious sees to pile up, it is like bucket, it can only become so full, anymore than that filled amount and you wind up with overflow. You have been nearing the overflow point, if you had not started sleeping recently, you probably would already be insane."  
"How do you know I'm a hunter?" I asked, he said it the night before but I did not realize that I had not told him then.  
He smiled, "word travels faster than you do I'm afraid."  
I chuckled, "of course, of course," I should have known that the word that a sole hunter was moving through the land.  
He smiled goofily beneath his flowing beard, "You are still welcome to stay with us hunter, at least until such a time that you can control your dreams at will."  
I nodded in agreement and sat upon one of the cushions, Origmi sat on one opposite of mine. "So you'll be guiding me through this I take it, I mean that is how this sort of thing works right? You enter my mind once the subconscious takes over, then you basically hand walk me through the mental process." I heard a snort like sound in my mind, "what?"  
"I will only be making sure that you stay grounded, don't want you falling out of our world, so I'll be watching but not helping."  
I closed my eyes and began to meditate in silence, I synchronized my heartbeat with my breathing, and I could feel the world fade away slowly like the sun setting behind a hill it faded out of existence. For a few brief moments the silence seemed to ripple with hints of sound, drops of noise fell around me like rain, noises blended and bled into one another before long no single sound was definable. Soon the darkness also faded, the ground I found myself standing upon was soaked with blood, the heads of my friends surrounded me, it was my dream from the previous night, the one that less than an hour ago I had awaken from; only this time I could move around in it, and I found it far less disturbing.  
I saw the shadows moving the same way as before, I knew what was coming this time, and I drew my sword, from where I do not know it just seemed to appear in my hands. When my shadow double attacked I managed to defend the attack and now found myself staring me down, the feeling was disheartening too say the least. I (not me but the other me) brought my face closer to me, and then wile our faces were less than three centimeters apart the face changed. It turned into my fathers; I am not sure how I know that it was my fathers face because the features had almost all changed. His hair was silver, his skin pale and thin, his eyes were sunk deep into his head, then I realized that he was a vampire now, I breathed deeply and closed my eyes. When I opened them again he was gone, a dark laugh echoed throughout the darkness, it was female in origin, I tried to shake it at first, then I listened hoping to recognize the laugh but I had not even the smallest idea to whom it belonged to.  
"Show yourself!" the scream seemed nearly meaningless to who ever was doing the laughing, it merely got louder, I tightened my fists, the sword I was holding had disappeared back into the air from whence it came. "Fine, stay hidden, this dream world is just that, a dream whatever you are you will be gone when I awaken." The laughing doubled as I finished speaking; I was beginning to become angrier as time slowly passed by. "It's not a very good idea to get me angry you know the fact that whatever you are may not be vampiric I can still kill you with ease.  
Heavy breathing took the place of the laughing, "You think you are so powerful hunter, arrogance always leads to death, even for those immune to death." The voice was obviously female but it was much darker, like that of a demon. "I will destroy your mind, like all the others that have met me and decided to piss me off, vampires fear me more than you child! My wrath shall be incurred upon you, your mind will decay before me, and I shall feast upon your soul!" The yelling was echoing loudly brining me to my knees in pain.  
I awoke at that moment when the pain reached near intolerable, jutting forward falling off the pillow. The palms of my hands came slamming down upon the floor of the room keeping my head from bouncing off the hard stone; my heart raced, sweat ran slowly down my forehead. I glanced up at Origmi who was staring at me, worry etched on his face deeper than any of the carvings on the walls, his eyes were changing colours rapidly, his forehead appeared to be "bumpy." I was trying to remember from earlier training what form of creature has such features, but to no avail, the answer lay buried beneath problems and difficulties that are more pressing.  
"You have a serious problem my friend, there is a creature living within your mind a-"  
I cut his sentence short; with the way, he started talking I knew what was living in my mind, "A succubi." Soul eaters, they affect you by entering your mind by planes-walking from one of the astral planes, then they jump from host too host, the method by which they do this is a mystery. Without a host a succubus would simply just dry out and die, unless they can manage enough power to open a portal for their currently dead hosts mind.  
"Well at least you know what you suffer with, however there is little that I can do, we here have no methods of defeating a succubus that is in another's mind, the only way do defeat it is-"  
"I must defeat it in my own mind, if I can kill said creature my mind is cleared and freed form all damages that may have been inflicted upon it, though the healing of the mind is slow. Whatever parts of my soul that had been devoured by said creature also return to me as the creatures power decay and disperse. That about cover that?" I had long ago heard stories of only a few that had survived a battle with a Succubus however, even in those rare situations that the host was victorious the succubi was rather weak from either plane-walking or host jumping. Mine seemed strong, however I have one advantage over the others I can control my own mind at any time.  
"I would tell you to go rest yourself; however that would not seem to be the best idea at the moment." He took a deep breath and glanced at my eyes, his bumps were gone, and his eyes returned to one color but I could not remember if it was the same as before, they were hazel now. "Let me take you to our great hall, they have a superb roasted boar with potatoes today, and I know that you have not eaten yet."  
Smiling I grabbed at my stomach as it growled with anticipation of food on its way, "come to think of it, it has been a time since last I had a decent meal."  
"This way then," he stood up and began to lead the way out of the dome room, and all the way back to where my room had been. He continued past it to a small opening that led to the outside, the sunlight was nearly blinding in the valley. "The great hall lays across the field, do you see that ladder that leads to the highest door," his index finger pointed the way to a very high ladder that lad to a door that I would estimate to be about thirty feet in the air.  
"Yeah I see it."  
"Well that's not it," he turned and smiled at me, "it's the one to the lower left of it."  
This one was more reasonable, level with the ground, and large enough that a full-grown platinum dragon could fit through with ease. "That's a big door."  
"We have some very large guests at times, you should be fine to make it there yourself, I must now go tend to the less fortunate of us."  
"You meant those that are residing in the ward of-"  
"Yes, those that have not had the strength to fight off their own personal demons and now have not the strength to even try." His face seemed to fill with anger and disappointment.  
"Is there anyway that I can help?" this is one of the stupidest things that I could have asked, but it is like an instinct that most people have, when you feel sorry for someone what do you ask, even if you know that there is nothing that you could possibly do.  
"Not wind up there yourself," he said with no joke being made, no smile only sincerity. "I have seen to many fall to madness and for one like you, one of the last of your kind to come here would be a atrocious waste to this world."  
"I will defeat my demons, if not for myself than at the least for you; thank you again, for everything."  
"No need for thanks, all those who are worthy to be here are accepted and treated equally, I will find you later Zamieon." He leaned forward to bow in honor of me I returned the bow. "Till I see you next I suggest that you not sleep, I want to be with you to ensure that you wake up." With that, he left to give aid to those whose minds were lost.  
I walked slowly across the grassy field that lay between the two buildings of stone; the breeze in the valley was light and cool I stretched my arms out at my side to welcome the breeze to me. It blew through my long hair, it felt gentle against my face, I breathed deep of its mixture of scents. It carried with it the scent of grass, lilacs, roses, many other flowers to which I had no name, the smell of freshly melted snow, as well as the smell of fresh rain. I soon arrived at the great hall; the inside like the other mountain home was carved with great care and detail, the smell of fresh food made me forget of the wonderful smells outside. The roof in the hall was incredibly high, between the shear height and size I would estimate that five full grown, hell over-grown platinum dragons would fit.  
I soon found were to acquire the food that I had so recently realized that both my mouth and stomach had been missing for some time; I had been living on trail like rations for more than 2 years now. I cleared three plates before I felt as thought I should stop, the chefs were more than happy to serve more and seemed to get rather upset when I said no. I relaxed in my chair and took in the whole hall, patrons and all. It was surprisingly quiet thou to be fair there was only me and four other people in the hall at the time, this place reminded me of home, because everyone there was of a different race yet they sat together drinking and laughing. Even with the contemptuous succubi feeding off me I felt in absolutely no danger, I figured that I would be able to defeat the creature by nightfall.  
  
I stayed in the hall for about three hours, by that time it had nearly every monk that lived there dining on food, they spoke loudly now, laughing, drinking, some discussing, one or two stopped to speak with me but most seemed either nervous or completely scared of me. I chose this time to leave and go back to my own room, as I crossed the field I ran into Origmi who decided to join me in my room.  
When we arrived at my room, the sun was beginning to set, reds and pinks danced across the previously blue sky. "So you ready Zamieon?" Origmi was noticeably nervous about the task at hand, but then again I was as well.  
"Ready as I need to be, you think that you'll be able to rip me out if I get in too deep?" He just nodded his answer; I took three deep breaths, "than I got nothing to worry about right?" I smiled to let him no that I was only joking to light my mood. I closed my eyes and began to meditate, Origmi was now in my mind as well, he did not say anything, however I could just feel him there. The darkness slowly became more than unnatural a pulsing of light could be seen coming from what by my estimation would be the approximate center of mind. It sent waves of light in non-chronological sequences through the dark, after what seemed like hours of silence the pulsing stopped and the light faded into darkness.  
The laughing of the creature started once more, echoing loudly, pounding against the walls of my mind. "So you've returned to die have you? Didn't give me much time to find out just what a hunter can do, no mater death to you hear will destroy your mind, leave you for all intensive purposes dead."  
"You forget succubus," I began, focusing to find from where the voice was coming from; "that this is my mind, I am the one who controls all that exists here."  
There was a loud thud in the distance to my left, the succubus' voice echoed with contempt towards me, "you think that I cannot defeat you simply because this is your mind? Have you any idea how many creatures I have defeated in their own minds?"  
"I assure you that I will not be added to that list." I spread my arms wide, focusing my energy to shape my mind into a large square shaped room, then with in my loudest possible yell I released a single word; "LIGHT!" The pulsing light reappeared in the center only this time instead of pulsing it exploded igniting the world I had created in a brilliant white; the succubus screamed covering its eyes with one of its grey bat like wings. "Thought I'd even the odds, after all unlike you I cannot see in the dark."  
I saw my first succubi cowering from the light to my left; its body was a smoky grey, the ridges of its spine seemed to protrude out of its skin they were more noticeable due to the purple colour that they had. Its arms were slim with razors sharp nails for fingers, its long tail supported most of her weight, and her hind legs were only lightly touching the ground. She pulled the wing away from her face and hissed loudly at me, her long red hair fell back off her face, exposing her pure black eyes and razor teeth. She leapt high into the air fluttering her wings to keep her air born for the time. She smiled evilly and pulled her body into a ball, she fell a small way towards the ground, and then without warning she stretched her whole body to its limit. As she did so long pointed spear like spikes shot from the points of her wings, I had little time to maneuver out of the way of several of them as the hit the ground beside me sticking deeply into the ground.  
"A little more dangerous than you thought?"  
"Hardly," I focused my mind and created a heavy metal box around the succubus whose face was showing signs of shock as it happened; as the box closed quickly, I could her banging against the sides of the box. I began to lower it towards the floor as she continued to struggle inside, then the banning stopped.  
"Do you really think that this is enough to hold me in place," with a loud screaming she came erupting out of the roof of the box, flying strait up with great speed. Fortunately, for me she had not noticed the heavy metal shackle attached to her right leg, it quickly snapped her back down to the ground, the sound of bones snapping echoed through my mind. I snapped my fingers; more shackles grabbed her remaining extremities pulling them all to the ground, she struggled screaming things in languages I never knew even existed. "Did you underestimate your enemy?" I spoke mockingly to her for she was now completely helpless.  
"Fine, you have won, now let me up and I will be on my way," her voice allowed the traces of fear to ring out clearer than any bell.  
"Oh, I think not, I don't know how things work were you come from but here," I gestured with my hands to show my mind; "when you threaten to kill someone that person is very likely to kill you instead." I smiled waving good-bye to the helpless monster, as I began to walk away; she screamed for mercy, I snapped my fingers again. "Fine I shall set you free," THUNK! The heavy blade of a guillotine fell and she stopped screaming, her soul was now free to go wherever it so wanted. I did not turn around I merely took three long deep breaths, then I closed my eyes once more.  
When my eyes opened again it was late at night, just one or two hours before dawn. I was awakened by screaming down the hall form me, blood- curtailing screams, male in origin. I rose out of bed; patting out the wrinkles in my pants as I made my way to my door and opening it in order to try and locate the from whence the screaming originated from. I heard them start again only loader followed by incoherent sentences, something about death and evil surrounding him. I slowly managed to drag myself sluggishly down the hall towards the ramblings, my head still groggy from too little sleep. I came to a large set of metal doors, behind them the mumbling words of mad men and women came pouring out, I had figured out why the screams were coming from there but I had become far too curious to leave well enough alone, I needed to see inside for myself.  
I pushed the door open and walked into the ward of the insane, it was a dimly lit room filled with all forms of creature, all of them completely lost to our world. Most were chained or tied down to their beds so that they didn't pose a threat to others, there were some, less dangerous ones wandering about, speaking to inanimate objects or people that were not there, some talked to themselves and answered. Than I heard the screaming again, the same thing a flurry of words mixing together, to hard to understand, I followed the voice and what I found attached to it made my heart sink, nearly brining me to my knees in sorrow, tears began forming in my eyes.  
A young Half-Drow male lay strapped to a bed, his eyes squeezed tight shut, I knew the voice now, and the face both belonged to Golfallow Harslem, my old friend, my clansman. He shook his head violently a long trail of drool and blood ran down the side of his face, deem marks from the straps used to hold him down ran across his body like scars. I did not have any way of knowing how long he had been here, but it seemed that his stay was far less enjoyable than my own.  
  
"Theycametheykeepcomingtheyneverstopalwaysalonealwayshuntedtheyneverwillstop deaddeadthatiswhattheywantmetobebutIamstrongIwillnotdie ..." His words grouped together with no break between them, from my best guesses he ran for a long time with vampires constantly hunting him down. He opened his terrified eyes, began to stare at me, still staring, recognition, he sees me remembers me maybe, then he closes his eyes and no longer screams. Now he wails, tears running down his face, "nowtheysendthedeadfriendstogetmedeadalldeadallfriendsgone. Familygonealldeadvampirestookaway. Zamieonwhydoyoucomeformewewerebestfriends..."  
"I am sorry," came a soft voice from behind me, I turned to see a young female monk looking gently at me. "He has been here the last three years; he has no signs of progress, keeps going on about death and pain." She walked over towards Golfallow Harslem and placing a cold damp cloth on his forehead attempts to calm him down. "We found him wandering in the woods, in this state; even so it was not easy to bring him in." His wailing lowered to a sniffling, his tightened eyes eased though remaining closed.  
"I wouldn't imagine that he would, hunters are not easily taken," I calmly told her as I wiped a tear from my eye. "He and I were like brothers when we lived in the colony together, but that was before the vampires attacked wiping out my people. I thought them all dead though, sadly I wish that they had." Seeing my friend like this was painful for me on a level that I was becoming accustomed to, though I wish that I was not.  
Golfallow Harslem opened his eyes slowly, glaring at me, turned to the nurse, and pointed towards me as best he could with his arms strapped down, "can you see him?" His voice was slow, apparently he may not have been in as bad of shape as I had thought that he was, the nurse nodded her answer. "Zamieon?" he asked worriedly, as though it were a question that his life may depend on, I nodded my answer reluctantly. "It really is you, but how all the hunters died? I was there I ran like a coward but when I came back everyone was dead."  
"I survived; there is no more that needs to be said of that old friend." I reached my hand out and touched his; he grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard. Tears started to roll down his face but this time he was smiling as he did so.  
He turned to the nurse his expressions went serious, "the dreams are getting worse, go tell the others that they are coming."  
"But what about you I can't just leave you here, what if you fall back asleep, they could take you in your sleep."  
"Won't happen, they have done all the damage that their magics can possibly allow them to do, insanity is after all something that I am learning to cope with."  
"I refuse to leave you, what happens if they are closer than you think, they could enter this room killing everyone in it."  
"Your being here won't make a difference! Besides" he said taking a deep breath, "Zamieon is here, and if I know him well enough he could take care of more dead than you could." He allowed a smile to creep slowly back over his face, "just let me up, I want a fighting chance."  
She did so, removing the restraints from him, "don't worry Zamieon I do this every night, I can control the madness during the time that I am awake but when I sleep, well you saw." He stood up stretching, and then pointed the nurse out the door; she ran quickly out of the room and continued out of sight.  
"So what is it that is coming exactly?" I asked with only the knowledge that it was something dead.  
"A necromancer and his army have begun to move against all the powers of this world, it's no surprise but the necromancer is powerful to say the least. They have taken control of most of the continent, though I do not think that he has the power to take on all the kingdoms of the east." He began to dress himself in armor that was lying underneath his bed. "I would like it if you stayed at least until after the fight, so that we may take some time to..." he paused searching for a better wording than catch up, "to catch up."  
"Don't worry old friend, I had planned on staying here more than a couple of years, but now I may make it a few decades."  
"Good company huh? At least that's the reason I stay, well that and the food." He finished tightening the straps of his armor, "if you'll excuse me I really must go and help prepare the troops."  
"I'll go with you."  
"No, this is our-"  
"I'll go with you, I was taken in here, cured of the succubi living off my soul; I owe at least two people here a great deal." I placed one of my hands on Golfallow's left shoulder, he in turn did the same, nodding he led the way out of the ward.  
We left the cave that we had been in and walked into the large field, a horn blowing loudly on the peak of one of the mountains, all the people that were in the caves poured out into the field hundreds gathered in even rows awaiting someone to speak. "Wait right here Zamieon, just keep listening to what is being said, and then be prepared for one of the most spectacular sights you will ever see." Golfallow went to join a small group that stood before the congregated groups; I assumed that the head group was composed of the leaders of the Hirogroul nation.  
"My brothers," a commanding voice called for the attention of all, his arm raised high into the air. He lowered his arm as he began to speak, "What we have all dreaded has come, the necromancer Ahquawfe is coming, he and his army of the dead will be on our doorstep within a few days." The rooba, rooba of many voices talking at once rose from the crowd, his arm went back up, silence. "Scouts, I will need you to post yourselves more frequently throughout the hills, guards keep whatever you need close by your sides at all times. I will turn your attention to Golfallow, our seer and tactical adviser; he shall give you the battle plans," his hand gestured towards Golfallow.  
"Thank you Duannan, I want half of you to guard the only entrance into Hirogroul, the rest I want you to guard the path that leads down from the hill, wait until those here engage the enemy to attack, you are to catch them from their blind sides. Those that can fly, you will act as scouts, since you can warn others faster, I need a magical barrier placed around all known cemeteries and burial grounds, make sure he can't raise reinforcements. You have all been training for just such a situation, lets make sure we do it right." Consensus echoed throughout the group.  
I was not let down, over half the congregation began to shimmer in some unseen light from some unseen source, then it happened; those that were glowing rose into the air, massive wings in all different colors flapping, the ensuing wind gusts nearly knocked the rest of us over. Dragons, those of the congregation that were not dragons were either outsiders like my self or merely draconic beings, (those that are of dragons blood but not full dragons) they all however immediately set off to take care of the needed tasks.  
My mouth was gaped open, or at least I assumed it was when Golfallow ran up to me saying in his surprisingly chipper voice; "told ya!"  
"Your as strange as ever," I muttered happily back, my eyes fixed on the dragons.  
"How's that?" he answered his eye brows raised in innocent disbelief in what I was saying.  
I turned my gaze back to him, I was still smiling like an idiot, "you always were a wee bit happy for a Drow."  
"Half-Drow."  
"Well it's definitely not the Drow mentality that you inherited."  
"Luckily."  
"Here, here."  
We laughed hard with another; Golfallow was leading me back to his room. When we arrived my mouth actually did gape open this time, his room was immense, lit with all sorts of differently scented candles. There were two beds with soft satin sheets, and down blankets, thick feather pillows, and a variety of animal hides for flooring. "Have a rest, I promise you you'll have one of the best rests in either bed."  
"How many?"  
"Beg your pardon?"  
"Undead, how many are we talking, thousands?"  
"More like hundreds of thousands, I'm worried, though." He took a long deep breath before he continued, "we may have dragons, more than a hundred and fifty, however this necromancer raises dragons, harpies; you name it." His face sank, "I need to get out of here, I need to run, I can't stand to see any more death."  
"Then run."  
"Come with me."  
"No, I haven't run before, and death is something that I am more likely to deal than to ever fear."  
"You've changed; you have lost your humanity."  
"Immortality will do that, I have grown colder, less caring of those around me."  
"I'm sorry."  
"As am I," I stood up and walked towards Golfallow, "listen, these people have faith in you, the kind that I always have, you cannot continue to turn your back on other, otherwise you risk loosing the past."  
"I have always looked at it as being worse to loose ones future."  
"Guess you've inherited some of the Drow nature after all," he smiled, laughing hard; put his hands on my shoulders, stood up and walked over to one of the beds, cast a sleeping spell on himself. He was asleep long before he hit the pillow, I followed suite and decided to go to bed as well.  
A horn blew off in the distance of my mind waking me, bringing me back from the serene darkness of rest. My head rose slowly off the pillow a long line of drool had attached itself to the corner of my mouth and the pillow, I sluggishly wiped it away. Golfallow was sitting upright in his bed his face pale, sweat was running down in surprising amounts, his eyes were a blur as the rapidly moved back and forth and his body shook with fear. I stood up, stretching my body out, every crack; every kink that popped out made me feel just a touch more awake.  
I slid beside Golfallow, my mighty hand grasped his tense shoulder, and his eyes locked on me, horrified, "it is time old friend, one more bloodletting for me, and perhaps the last for you."  
"I can only hope that this is the last for me, I don't handle war too well, I am an assassin not a warrior." He let a nervous smile creep over his face, tears of fear ran down his face.  
"You said this necromancer was powerful, but I am curious, what race is he?"  
"Elf or Drow, no one has really seen more of him than pointy ears and shimmering hair, why?"  
"Is he very old?"  
"Young as far as any accounts go, why are you asking any of this?" His face bore deep curiosity.  
"I could use someone of his talent in the future, I can finish this battle quickly enough, just get me information as to were in the fray he is." I figured a man that can raise armies of the undead to fight his battles would be a welcome ally when the master of the vampiric race came down to play the final chorus.  
"I can probably set a telepathic link between the scouts and myself, but there might not be time, we are already late," he stood up quickly and bolted through the door not waiting for me to keep up. As we reached the outside field, the troops had all gathered and were preparing for battle. The dragons filled the sky casting protective barriers around the homes, glimmering lights of magic danced in the night air, breeze blew gently bending the limbs of the trees, no longer carrying the scents of nature or life, but that of death and decay. The ground troops gathered their weapons, flails, war hammers, mauls and other blunt, bone crushing styled weapons lay spread out on the ground, Golfallow walked over and took up a morning-star.  
"Here," he said holding out a spiked mace, "these are probably the best weapons for speed."  
I smiled as I cast two spells of godly strength, "no thanks I prefer these." Bending down I picked up two mauls, their combined weight was about eighty pounds, but to me they felt less than five pounds apiece.  
The slow pounding of the earth began to vibrate through my legs, panic-stricken faces surrounded me, and I began to push my way to the front brushing of Golfallow's hands as they grabbed at the fabric of my coat. "Zamieon wait, the dragons said that he is at the very back of the army, standing alone at the entrance between the two jagged rocks." I turned to look at Golfallow and nod out of appreciation.  
I now moved quickly moving around the bodies of the battle ready warriors, the leaders of each battalion attempted to stop me, I brushed past them with ease, their hands never able to hold me back. Shouts to hold the soldiers back echoed behind me as I passed through the protective barriers, they barriers had been created to hold out the dead not the living so I passed through with ease. I broke my run, stood motionless waiting for the moment in which that I could see my enemy.  
The loud shriek of the dragons signaled the undead armies approach over the hill, I could make out the tops of their skulls, some bore helms, others had bits of scalp remaining. I poised myself for attack, waiting about ten kilometers from the rest of the group. I began to run towards the advancing troops, zombies, and skeletons all with weapons in hand; admittedly, some weapons were meager, sort of in the way of shovels and picks. They moved slowly, their bodies bobbing with every step, flesh hanging and sagging off the bones they used to be attached to, internal organs dragged on the ground behind the ones fresh enough to have them. I was closing, the army of monks stood silent behind me, the only sound other than my battle cry was those of the dragons above me as they flew into action, then my mauls struck the first of the dead down, shattering its white skull.  
I continued to strike as the army began to surround me; their swords and axes moving slowly through the air. I was able to doge each swing, ignoring those to my sides, I was focused on my progression forward, I was not going to allow these pathetic creatures to slow me. As I pushed forward turning bone to dust before me, it began to rain a sticky and thick fluid from the sky. The sky itself was clear; the moon hung heavily in the crisp night sky illuminating the world around me, the rain was turning everything red, the skeletons included. I began to hear the injured cries of dragons as the boney remains of their fallen kin and of the harpies pierced their flesh.  
The sky light up as though lighting were piercing the sky in a terrible storm, dragons were firing their magics and unleashing the power of their different elemental breath attacks, bones joined the blood in its decent to earth, every bone that collided with me hit with nearly enough force no knock me unconscious. Avoiding the wild swings of my enemy was becoming increasingly difficult so I decided to cast several burst speeds on my self to pull myself into that same pocket dimension I had several years before; it worked. The bones fell too slowly now to cause any real harm to me; my enemies as well no longer seemed to pose any real threat. The most interesting part of this was watching my enemies bones turn to dust as I struck them and then watching the dust blow into the night in slow-motion. The area that I was striking would be pulled into the pocket dimension as myself, then as the maul ripped past the shattering parts it pulled small amounts of dust behind it leaving a slow falling trail of bone dust behind it.  
I continued to strike down uncounted enemies before me, the trail behind me would leave a huge gap in the army's ranks, the drops of blood- rain continued to trickle from the heavens, and each droplet was easy for me to see as it broke upon the bodies of the dead, dying their bleached bodes a deep red. My hair dripped with the thick red solution, washing over my face, every time I opened my mouth the metallic taste of iron-rich blood flowed into it. It left a thick feeling in the back of my throat, made it difficult to breathe or swallow; it was leaving a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I did not slow my pace though, I continued determined to find the necromancer and make him an ally of mine, I had already decided the best way to convince him, it would not be hard. The sky above me was now completely on fire, the breath of the red dragons lit the sky, in my current state the blaze would seem to last for at least an hour. I finally reached the top of the hill that the army had risen over, and now I could faintly make out the large rocks that marked the entrance to the monk's home.  
Only about thirteen more kilometers, I thought to myself; I decided to make a very impressive entrance for the necromancer. I pulled my right arm back and then with all my strength I threw one of my mauls forward. As it left my hand it also left the pocket dimension, it would spin and shatter at least ten skeletons before it started to loose its speed and relatively straight trajectory. Gripping the other maul tightly in my hand I began to clear a path through the skeletons and zombies that stood in my way, skeletons break nicely, leaving only bone and dust as remains. Zombies on the other hand are messy when killed, as the maul collides with their heads it not only shatters the skull but it also releases the smell of rotting flesh, splatters whatever skin, blood and organs remained within it.  
I quickly covered over ten kilometers before I looked over at the maul I had released earlier, it was nearly halfway between were I released it and the first skeleton in its path. I allowed my self to take a short breather before I carried on; turning my attention to the large natural stone entrance, way I could now make out the necromancer. His blond hair flowed elegantly in the night air, sure enough, he had the pointy ears of the elven races, though I could not tell if he was Drow or not. A fabric mask covered the lower half of his face (from the nose down), his long robe dragged on the ground, and he held a staff with an orb of dominance that allowed him to control weaker minded creatures with ease. I decided to make this fast, I cast a shock wave spell, the force from it would be enough to cause any skeleton within a five Kilometer radius of me to crumble, the spell is more of a passive spell against enemies, though it can injure or even kill foes that are in close range of the caster. Interestingly enough, the spell itself adhered to the same physics as the maul I had thrown; essentially as soon as I cast it I expected results, however the spell was not working at the same pace of myself, instead it existed outside of the pocket that I was in.  
I dropped my second maul and made a fast dash towards the necromancer, unfortunately for me the spell I had just cast was starting to injure me. As I past through the wave of shock its speed and force entered my pocket, nearly breaking my legs, I stumbled as I tried to keep my balance and finish my run towards the Necromancer. Luckily, the spell was only able to affect me for a few yards before it exited my pocket. I reached the necromancer and allowed myself to catch my breath; his gaze was fixed on the maul that appeared to come out of nowhere, his pale grey eyes filled with disbelief. It was clear that he still did not see me, and that he was elven in heritage. I examined him for a few seconds, my heart rate gradually slowed, I glanced over towards the maul, 'nearly there' I thought to myself. I stood at my full height and cast dispel on myself so that I would be released from my pocket-dimension, I appeared before the necromancer.  
"The fuck!?" He stumbled a few steps back, his eyes wide in surprise as he lost his grip on his staff.  
The echoing of my maul shattering bone came as I charged at him, grasping at the shoulders of his robe I picked him up slightly and with all my force, I pushed him back against one of the large stones. He hit hard, the air escaping his lungs; my face was mere inches from his, "we need to talk." His eyes were fixed on mine, I could feel the shock wave hit us, it pushed me into the necromancer, in turn it tried to push him through the stone. I was smiling darkly now, "listen necromancer, what is it that you want."  
He snapped out of his surprise, "to have the world, to cleanse it of all life."  
"Why?" So that question was not one I had intended to ask but lets be fair, I was not expecting that answer.  
"Life has gone on to long, it must be cleansed, only the dead should remain here, it is not fair to them to be shoved out of sight, buried or burned. They were the ones who founded this planet it is theirs; I am going to give it back."  
What a mental case, he was completely out of his mind, "well let me make you an offer, as it stands now I am the only thing that would be able to stop you, correct?"  
"Seems that way," his voice was emotionless, cold like death itself.  
"Well, how about this, you leave here, retreat, go into hiding for lets say about a thousand years, then I will summon you and your army of the dead to aid me. After we finish the business that is at hand there I will not stop you, you may do as you please." He was thinking, trying to decide weather to trust me or not. "Look, its not like I couldn't kill you and the rest of your minions in a heart beat, the only reason I haven't done so is that I want your aid."  
"After we finish what ever business it is that you have, you leave, you're out of my way forever? No tricks, no extra deals, I can do what I want even if it involves destroying this world?"  
"As long as it happens on this world, I will not hinder you."  
"Agreed." That was a hell of a lot quicker than I had expected. "Who are you any way, there are few that could strike fear into my heart, I'd like to no just who it was that was able to defeat me."  
"Zamieon, and who may I ask is the one who has just agreed to become my servant in battle?"  
"The call me Neronacon, but my true name is Elafatry." He bowed his head as best he could, I released my grasp on him, and his feet hit the ground with a light thud. "Well then Zamieon, I shall disappear for a while then, but how will you find me?"  
Smile, laugh, breath, mind-walk; "I'll let you know."  
He returned the smile, and spoke while nodding, "Mind walking, no problem then you can get me any where at any time." With that, he turned his back to me, picked up his staff, raised it high into the air, said something in ancient elven then struck the ground. He pulled his staff from the ground; at that moment a cheer went up in the distance, he then turned back to me, bowed, then transformed into a dire owl and flew into the night sky.  
When I returned to the monks Golfallow was already celebrating with the other monks, my name was being cheered at top volume, when they saw me I was given a hero's welcome. I joined the party, as the night progressed many different types of alcohols were being consumed, pipes were lit, and slowly I began to find words difficult to say. My speech was slurred, I was being introduced to many people, though I doubt I would remember them the next day, the world was spinning around me, music echoing off in the distance. Eventually darkness took me away from my body, I know it continued to move it had to, there was no way it was stopping at the rate it had been moving, too mush adrenaline was keeping it awake, my mind on the other hand shut down.  
When I awoke sometime after noon the next day my head was throbbing, I was lying next to an elven woman I had never seen before, blanks covered both our bodies, thankfully because nowhere in the room could I find my clothes. I stopped looking for long enough to sort out my thoughts and realize just what had happened, and then my gaze fell upon her. Her skin gleamed in the sunlight that was pouring into the room; I was assuming that it was her room. Her long hair golden hair lay underneath her youthful face, her full red lips bore the second most breathtaking smile that my eyes had ever laid eyes on. As I continued to enjoy the beauty that lay beside me, she began to stir, her eyes fluttered slowly open, and then squinting from the bright light of day, then she had the sudden realization that she was not alone in her room. Her bright green eyes got lost in my own, she half smiled as she stared.  
"You must be Zamieon," she said lightly, her voice was more beautiful than any painting of any sunrise, or ocean, or woman, hell you could combine all three and never be able to even touch upon the kind of beauty that she spoke with.  
"If I must be," I replied dumbly, I guess that word about the only new person here would travel faster than that of impending danger. "I apologize for having to ask this but," I began to hesitate hoping the right words would come to me; they didn't, "uhm , who would you name belong to?" The idiot alarm in my brain sounded, I was becoming tongue tied, pinch once on your right thigh hard enough and you can recover I told my self; ouch, "sorry, too much ale last night still affecting my speech. What was your name, fair lady?"  
She giggled, her whole body seemed to shake as she did so, I made a mental note to watch more women when they laughed to see if they all have the same bodily reaction when laughing. "My name is Feligale Fernberry, I must apologize for my behavior, normally," she blushed a deep red, "well never until now have I ever acted so."  
"Acted how?" Now I was playing cute and dumb, put the bait out, would she go for it?  
"They way I did last night, have you forgotten?" She did.  
"I have, you should show me again."  
She began to smile; I pushed my body so I was nearly over top of her, our gaze met once again, I slowly lowered my body towards hers, our lips met, tongues dancing in each other's mouths. Her hands gripped tightly onto my back pulling me closer, (sorry to disappoint you reader but this is the closest that I will come do describing myself having sex) from there we began to make love the right way. Passion came over us, both our bodies glistened in the light of day; her embrace was nearly as magnificent as she was. It only lasted half an hour but it felt like far more to me, she held me close afterward, her fingers gently pulling themselves through my hair.  
We lay together until nearly three in the afternoon, I slowly and albeit regrettably out of the bed. "Beg your pardon Miss Fernberry but, where are my clothes?"  
"Somewhere in the hallway with my own, we started last night before we arrived here." My mouth fell to the floor, well nearly any way, what the hell was I going to do, I had the sneaking suspicion that Feligale was not going to have anything that suited me. "Relax," she said as she followed my lead out of bed, though I think that she did a much more magnificent job of it then I had. She placed a hand on my shoulder, "return" with that my clothes appeared on the floor directly in front of me.  
"Thank you."  
"You are welcome, when you finish Golfallow and the high councilors wanted to meet with you, just go to the training hall, you'll find them all there," she leaned down and kissed me, "now if you'll excuse me I must get ready to train myself." She turned and walked through a door that led to an extension of the room, I quickly dressed myself.  
I left the room and with great difficulty, I made my way to the training hall. As slinked down the spiral staircase I came across Golfallow, he was dressed in a ceremonial kimono style robe, emerald in color with golden trim. I nodded to acknowledge him; he had the hung-over look almost as bad as I did, though I doubt his morning had been as enjoyable as mine had. He gestured for me to follow him, I did so; he led me to the giant circular room, this time we stayed along the wall, then without warning Golfallow stopped to touch the rocky wall. His hand past through, then he continued through it, I followed him through, on the other side was a smaller and much more dimly lit room. In the center of the room stood a long table, on the other side of that table sat the councilors; six in total.  
"Zamieon Malanchite, former member of our group has come to us recently and told us of your plight." I was assuming that the dracon that was sitting at the center of the table was the head; since he was the only one speaking, I was guessing that I was right. "It is because of your willingness to aid us and others that it is the decision of this council to aid you against the vampiric hoard when it comes. Also it occurs to us that you must have a special weapon to aid you in your coming battles, it is for that reason that we would like to present you with this;" he extended his hands and a large double edged broad sword appeared floating in the air before him. "This sword has served many in the past, it is forged with the powers of all the dragon clans of this and several other worlds, and it will absorb the elements in it. Due to its method of forging, it contains blessing of the red, blue, black, silver, gold, ancient, platinum, emerald and the great omega dragon clan. We bestow it onto you who will save the world from the vampiric hoards."  
I extended my arm grasping the amazingly soft leather wrapped hilt in my right hand, I examined the blade, jewels of different types and sizes were scattered in different places along the blade. It was lighter than even my scimitars, "thank you, your service and this weapon are both greatly appreciated." I bowed with respect to the great draconic council.  
"Your friend Golfallow has sent word to the hirdoric assassin guild, we are awaiting reply but believe that they will also bend their will towards yours when the time comes." I bowed to Golfallow who merely held out a hand as if to say forget about it. "Well I only have one question to ask of you."  
"That would be?" I raised an eyebrow; instincts told me that it was an important question.  
"How long will you be staying with us?" To hell with instinct, this was not even hard for me to answer.  
"How does four hundred and ninety-eight years sound?"  
"Like an offer we would gladly accommodate, I even think that I know of someone who would gladly share a room with you." He was smiling, I knew he meant Feligale, you could see it in his eyes. "We hope you enjoy your stay here," he offered me his open hand; I took it in my own shaking it in as friendly a manner as I knew.  
Needless to say the next nearly five hundred years past by with quiet pleasure, I studied all the books in the great library within the halls of Hirogroul, a spell I learnt along the way made the reading easy, it allowed my to simply absorb all the information within the tomes. I studied the fighting ways that the monks used, my mind and my body became harmonious with each other. Most of my free time though was taken up by Feligale, it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had; (and educational, if you think a human woman is moody during 'that time of the month' try an elf they are that way for months at a time, that's right not days not weeks, months, usually no more than two; USUALLY!) I am still not sure if it was love or lust that I allowed the things that happened between us to happen, but I will admit every minute was worth it. Sadly like all things it must come to an end, and after four hundred and fifty years the ringing in my head of another presence came, Jay was now calling me to him. The time to train was now at hand and I had to leave my quiet part of heaven. 


End file.
